Finding Home
by BatTitan
Summary: Parker's not surprised that she hasn't been adopted by her thirteenth birthday. Not many people want a kid with a reputation, especially one like hers that causes her to be shuffled from orphanage to orphanage, school to school. A chance application to Stark Industries' school innovation program changes that. [Themes from A:TLA used, not really a crossover. OC fic.]
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

* * *

Parker watches the seconds tick down to midnight on her bedside clock, chewing her lip. In less than a minute, she'll be thirteen years old, considered in the eyes of many prospective parents too old to bother with adopting. Still, she can't help but hold out just a little sliver of hope that someone will open her door within the next fifteen seconds with adoption papers signed, even though it's well past visiting hours and hardly anyone in the children's home is awake to even accept the papers.

Swallowing, she watches as the numbers on the clock slide to midnight, the clock letting out a soft beep. Her roommate, a fifteen-year-old girl named Ella, leans over the edge of the top bunk to give her a small, sympathetic smile.

"Welcome to the reject club, Park." Parker manages a weak smile back as Ella rolls back out of sight to go to sleep, feeling her stomach twist with dejection. It had been a long shot to hope that she would be adopted before her thirteenth birthday, especially with the freak incidents that follow her to each home she goes to, but it still stings all the same.

She rolls over in bed to squint at the floor-length mirror against the wall in the darkness. She's fairly average-looking, she admits, with long dark hair in curly ringlets and brown eyes that look more like gold if the light hits them just right. Not pretty, by any means, but certainly adoptable. She stamps down the instinctive thought that pops into her mind at that.

 _Then why didn't anybody want me?_

It's a long, sleepless night for her after that.

She gets a visit from Phil the next morning before she has to go to school, which she's not surprised by; Phil stops by once a month, but always makes a point to give her a small present for her birthday, and had done so for as long as she can remember. She's still not quite sure she buys that he's actually her case worker, especially when she's met at least two other people that claim to be her case worker, but it's kind of him to think of her and that's what matters.

She had considered asking him to adopt her plenty of times, but the tightness around his eyes whenever he mentions his job and the amount of work he has to do leaves her hesitant to ask. The refusal, she reasons to herself, and the pain it would cause would not be worth plucking up the courage to ask.

"Happy birthday," Phil says as he passes over a wrapped box, which Parker unwraps instantly to find a lovely silver chain inside. It's only costume jewelry, but she loves it all the same.

"Thank you," she says with a warm smile, briefly slipping her arms around him as he wraps his arm around her shoulders to squeeze them gently.

"Want a ride to school? I brought Lola." Parker grins; she adores Phil's shiny red convertible.

"Sure, I'd love a ride." She slips the necklace on and clasps it quickly before grabbing her packed schoolbag. "You look tired," she adds, noticing the dark circles around Phil's eyes.

"It's been a long week at work," he answers dryly, but doesn't elaborate. Parker's used to that, so she doesn't push him. On their way out the door, his phone chirps and he frowns as he glances at it. "Stark again," he mutters to himself and shoves his phone into his pocket.

"Stark?" Parker echoes curiously. "As in Tony Stark? You know him?" She hadn't seen the news herself, but plenty of other kids at her school had been talking about the bright red and gold suit they had seen soaring through the air a few weeks ago, and Tony Stark had just admitted in a press conference the previous week that he was in fact the man in that suit. Iron Man, he had called himself, which sounds kind of cheesy, in Parker's opinion. Not that she'll ever say it to Mr. Stark's face.

"We've met," Phil answers simply, opening Lola's passenger door so that Parker can climb in. "And he's been giving me a lot more paperwork to fill out lately."

"You ever think maybe you ought to change careers if your job's stressing you out so much?" Parker suggests dryly as she buckles her seatbelt, earning a chuckle from Phil as he gets into the driver's seat.

"It's fine. I'm good at what I do. But I appreciate the sentiment." He ruffles her hair affectionately as he starts Lola's engine and begins to drive the familiar route to Parker's school. She watches the waves of the Pacific Ocean roll by as they drive along the beach, glad not for the first time that she lives in California now so she can always see the ocean no matter where she is.

She hadn't started out in California, though; according to Phil, she had been born in New Mexico and then been rapidly transferred from orphanage to orphanage since, passing through four different states and ten different schools. He doesn't outright say it, but she's positive that she's only been transferred so many times because of the incidents.

"No incidents lately?" Phil asks, as if he had read her mind.

"No, I've been okay," she says truthfully. She's done her best to keep her outbursts at bay, which is good, because people tend to freak out when they see water curling around her wrist like a snake or little flames lighting her fingertips, and people freaking out means yet another location transfer. She's sure that it adds more paperwork for Phil to fill out, too.

Phil relaxes at her answer, nodding in approval. "Okay, good. You've had to move enough this year already." Parker nods in agreement; she can do without having to re-establish herself at a new school for the third time this year.

"Speaking of Tony Stark, I applied to that program I told you about last time you visited," she tells him, returning to her earlier train of thought. "The innovative project one. If I get picked as a winner, I can work at Stark Industries this summer as an intern."

Phil hums in consideration. "What did you apply with?"

"An app to view veins in the arm through a phone camera," Parker responds. "I'm still working on the code, but in theory, the app should be able to map out the veins so you can see them clearly without needing to be medically trained."

"Sounds useful," Phil agrees. "I can't tell you how many times I've had to get my blood drawn and they keep missing the vein."

"Exactly." Parker grins, relieved that someone else understands why it's important. She had tried to explain it to Ella, but Ella had told her not to bother, she wouldn't be able to follow it. "I could use some machine-learning algorithms to add features like detecting the ideal venipuncture point, but I don't know anything about training AIs."

"And now you've lost me," Phil says dryly as they pull up at the curb to her middle school. He grins at her sour expression. "Don't take it personally, Park, I'm just not as smart as you."

Parker flushes slightly, feeling a little better about him brushing her explanation off. "I'm not that smart. I mean, I Googled practically everything for this project."

"Yeah, but you still put it into practice and thought about it yourself. That's what makes you smart." Phil nudges her shoulder gently. "Go on, before you're late. I'll check in on you next week once summer break starts."

"Okay. Thanks for the ride." Parker climbs out of the car.

"Have a good birthday," Phil says sincerely as she shuts the door behind herself.

"I will. Thanks." She waves until he disappears around the corner, adjusting her backpack on her shoulder and exhaling quietly as she turns to climb the steps to her middle school. She's bound to hear the results from the Stark program any day now, but with how little she knows about half the concepts in her application paper, she doubts she'll be picked.

* * *

Parker's sitting in her least-favorite class, English, and it's almost time for the final bell to ring when the announcement comes over the speaker for her to report to the principal's office. She's not surprised when everyone in the class "oohs" as she gets up and grabs her bag to head out; she doesn't have any friends, especially since she prefers to keep to herself. It saves her the trouble whenever she has to move to a new school.

She wonders what she's done as she heads down the hallway; she's positive that she hasn't had an incident, even a subconscious one (and really, she hadn't even known she had caused an earthquake that one time). She hopes that she doesn't have to transfer schools yet again; she's tired of having to catch up to her new class each time.

She knocks before peeking into the principal's office. "Uh, hi, I'm Parker. You called for me?" She can't remember the principal's name, but a quick glance at the nameplate on his desk informs her that his name is Jonathan Layton.

"Come in, Parker, come in," Mr. Layton says, ushering her to an empty seat. He sounds far more jovial than his thin, unpleasant appearance suggests, and she wonders what the occasion is until she notices that the seat beside the one Mr. Layton had offered her is occupied.

The stranger is wearing sunglasses indoors - _really? What kind of self-absorbed jerk wears sunglasses indoors?_ Parker thinks briefly - and has a neatly-trimmed goatee, and Parker can vaguely see a dim circle of light shining through the dress shirt he's wearing. It takes her a moment before it clicks into place whom she's looking at.

"Oh. Hi, Mr. Stark. Did you see my project application?" she blurts out before she can stop herself.

"Actually, that's what I'm here for," Stark says and, to her relief, slides off his sunglasses to look at her properly. She shuffles a little self-consciously under the scrutiny. "Your paper's easily the best out of the lot," he says after a moment and she has to stop herself from sagging in relief.

"Really? You mean it?"

"Well, that's what my PA said, anyway," Stark admits, shrugging casually. "She didn't understand some of the more technical aspects, so I took a peek at it. Machine-learning, that's ambitious for a...ten-year-old?" He squints at her and she bristles a little, feeling heat rise in her palms and clenching them to keep her temper at bay. She certainly doesn't need an incident in front of both her principal and Tony Stark.

"Thirteen, actually," she says instead of reacting. She thinks about whether to add that it's her birthday, but she doubts Stark cares.

"Thirteen, okay." Stark nods consideringly. "I can work with that. Now I pride myself on being the best when it comes to building AIs and training machine-learning algorithms, so working on your project's going to be refreshing, especially since we just got out of the weapons game. Then again, you probably saw that on the news already. You're gonna love meeting JARVIS, much less the bots in the lab downstairs. In case it's not obvious, you've got the job. When can you start?" He says all of this at three times the speed any normal person would take to say it and Parker vaguely wonders if he's got some kind of superpower like she does.

"Um." Stark doesn't look impressed by her speechlessness.

"Ah, school doesn't end until Friday," Mr. Layton reminds them and for a second, Parker starts, having forgotten about him.

"Yeah, I can't start until school's over for the summer," she answers apologetically and Stark simply waves it off.

"Sure, sure, so you can start Monday." He holds his hand out. "You got a phone?" Parker scrambles to grab the small flip phone Phil had given her the previous year and Stark takes it, snorting a little as he flips it open and examines the keypad. "Oh, boy. You can't even text efficiently on this thing." Still, he types in his number and sends himself a quick text before passing her phone back to her. "I'll send you the address to show up to on Monday."

"Thank you," she blurts out, feeling her eyes sting as the weight of the situation finally sinks in. "I can't tell you how much this-"

"Ah, no, no, we're not doing this." Stark gets to his feet quickly, sliding his sunglasses on again and, if Parker reads his expression right, looking rather alarmed. "Just show up on Monday. Bring whatever code you've got." The bell rings to signal the end of the day as he slips out of the office and heads down the hall, his hands shoved in his pockets.

Mr. Layton just stares after Stark, looking somewhat awed at the reality that someone so famous had been in his office and Parker quietly slips out unnoticed, feeling disappointed that she hadn't gotten to ask Stark about the glowing circle in his chest.

Her phone chirps as she gets onto the school bus and she peeks at the text to see that it's an address. The contact name is just "Tony :)" and she wrinkles her nose in bewilderment at the smiley face. Stark is definitely weird, far more than she had anticipated. Then again, she hadn't anticipated ever meeting him in person even if she had won the summer internship.

On that note, why _had_ he come to offer her the job himself? He has a PA, and she's sure he has countless other employees to come meet her.

She's distracted by her phone chirping again and looks down to see another text from Stark.

 _Need a ride on Monday?_

She hesitates before typing out a response, carefully taking her time to avoid making any spelling mistakes.

 _Yes, please._

Stark's answer is almost immediate and Parker envies him for his smartphone.

 _I'll send a car at 9 AM. Driver's name is Happy._

Parker wonders what kind of name Happy is before noticing a more obvious problem; she hadn't put her address on her application.

 _Wait, how do you know where I live?_

Stark's instant response unnerves her.

 _:)_

* * *

 **I caved. I promised myself I wouldn't write another OC fic, and I caved. I have so many plans for this one, though. And hopefully I'll get around to writing it a lot this summer while I'm teaching a course for my university and working on the first chapter of my Avatar: The Last Airbender fic's sequel.**

 **Normally, I wouldn't call this a crossover-fic, but I'm kind of taking the concept of the Avatar and applying it to this story, which is why Parker is exhibiting powers like manipulating the elements (not that other benders really exist in this world). I'll try to flesh it out as best as I can so people who haven't seen A:TLA can still follow this story.**

 **If it's not obvious, this takes place right after Iron Man ends and it's going to start featuring all of the Avengers soon, since I'm going to try and follow the canon MCU timeline as much as possible.**

 **(Also the vein app project Parker talks about is actually a project I worked on, so I'm really proud of that.)**

 **Hope you enjoy it, and please leave a review on how you think this is going so far! I'm experimenting with a kind of new style of writing, so I hope this reads okay!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

* * *

Parker isn't surprised when, as promised on Monday at 9 AM on the dot, a sleek black car shows up outside the children's home. She's gotten the impression already that Stark is extremely efficient. She grabs her backpack the moment she sees the car roll to a stop at the curb, hurrying outside.

"Hi," the driver says cheerfully as he steps out of the car to open the back door for her. "Happy Hogan. You're Parker, right?"

"Yes, sir." He waves it off with a grin and she can see why he's called Happy as she climbs into the backseat of the car.

"None of that 'sir' stuff. Just Happy's fine. And don't try that on the boss, either, he won't like it." He gets into the front seat and starts driving as Parker shuffles to look out the window instinctively at the ocean as she always does when she's on the road near the beach. They're not going the right way, though, she notes, since Stark Industries is in the other direction. She can see it on the edge of the skyline, and for a horrible moment, she's terrified that she's being kidnapped. What had she been thinking, getting into a car with a stranger? It goes against everything Phil had told her about being safe.

"Where are we going?" she asks even as she instinctively reaches for the door handle, preparing to throw herself out the door and grab her phone to call Phil for help.

To her relief, Happy says quickly the moment he notices her panic, "Oh, hey, relax. I'm sorry, I should've mentioned that Mr. Stark wanted me to bring you to the house instead of SI."

"The house?" Parker echoes, relaxing enough to let go of the door handle. "Why?"

"Says he's got something to show you in his lab." It doesn't do much to soothe Parker's nerves, but as Stark's mansion comes into view, her worries fade away as she admires just how beautiful it is.

The mansion is perched on a cliff overlooking a beach that's most likely private, with crystal blue waters washing up onto the sand in slow, lazy waves. The entire front-facing wall of the mansion is made of glass, so the ocean is visible no matter where someone is in the house. Parker thinks that if she gets to work in the mansion all the time, she might enjoy it far more than being cooped up inside a tiny windowless office in Stark Industries like she had expected.

Happy stops the car outside the front door and opens the back door for Parker to slide out.

"Thanks for the ride," she says and he gives her a warm smile.

"No problem. The boss said to take you anywhere you need, so anytime you have to go out, just find me." Parker thanks him again before heading up the front steps and knocking on the front door.

"Good morning, Miss Smith," a computerized voice says and she starts in surprise, looking around even as her nose instinctively wrinkles at the generic last name that the system had saddled her with. "Don't be alarmed. My name is JARVIS and I am Mr. Stark's personal AI. Please step inside and make yourself at home. Mr. Stark will be up from his lab momentarily." The door's lock disengages and Parker pushes the door open, stepping inside shutting the door behind herself.

"AI?" she echoes as what JARVIS had said sinks in, eyes widening with excitement as she realizes she's meeting a real, full-fledged AI.

"Yes, I manage all of Mr. Stark's agendas and accounts, as well as provide dry humor at his expense," JARVIS answers and she can hear a hint of said dryness in his synthesized voice.

"That's neat. I didn't know AIs could have a sense of humor," she says curiously as she glances around the main foyer. It's just as beautiful inside as it is outside, with steel structures and modern furniture and art everywhere.

"Mr. Stark programmed me to evolve a personality, Miss Smith," JARVIS says simply and Parker frowns again.

"Any chance I can convince you to drop the last name?"

"As you wish, Miss Parker. If there is anything else that makes you uncomfortable, please inform me." JARVIS directs her to the kitchen, where a pretty redheaded woman in a blouse and pencil skirt is pouring herself some juice.

"Oh. Hi, you must be Parker." She sets down the glass and comes around the kitchen counter to shake Parker's hand. Her handshake is firm and Parker gets the impression that this is a woman not to mess with, even if she's smiling kindly. "Virginia Potts, but please call me Pepper. I'm Mr. Stark's assistant."

"Were you the one to read my paper?" Parker asks as she puts the pieces together and Pepper nods.

"I filtered most of the applications out and sent only yours through to Mr. Stark. An app to view veins for venipuncture procedures is definitely the most innovative idea we got, and useful, too." Parker feels herself redden at the praise and Pepper grins at her embarrassment. "Not used to somebody telling you you're smart?"

"No, ma'am," Parker admits, ducking her head shyly.

"Just Pepper, please," Pepper insists with a chuckle. "Although it's nice to see at least one genius with manners around here." Parker's positive she resembles a tomato even as Pepper squeezes her shoulder gently. She's possibly the kindest person Parker's ever met, aside from Phil. "Can I get you anything to drink? Water, juice?"

"Orange juice, please?" Pepper goes back around the counter to pour her some orange juice and Parker thanks her as she takes the glass to sip on it. "Where is Mr. Stark, anyway?" she asks as Pepper sits down on a barstool at the island, a couple of folders spread out in front of her.

"Down in his lab," Pepper answers as she fishes a pen out of her purse and opens a folder to begin filling out the papers inside. "I'd suggest you let him know you're here, but he's always blowing things up these days, it's not a good idea to risk going downstairs without warning him." Parker grimaces, nodding in agreement as Pepper nods to the barstool beside her. Parker obediently hops up onto the barstool once she sets her backpack down. "Nondisclosure form, if you could sign here," Pepper says, passing her a paper and the pen.

"Why?" Parker asks, reading quickly through the form and trying to make sense of the legal jargon.

"Just so we know you won't go telling our competitors what's down in Mr. Stark's lab." Pepper shrugs a little. "Of course, I know you won't, but it's just a precaution. HR demands it."

Parker frowns even as she signs the form and passes it and the pen back to Pepper. "How do you know I won't?" she says. "Not that I would, of course, but just out of curiosity."

Pepper gets an odd look on her face then as she stuffs the form back into its folder. "Oh, no reason." Her voice is a little higher-pitched than normal.

Parker decides that's very suspicious and opens her mouth to press further, but then she hears heavy footsteps coming up from the staircase leading down into the basement. Stark emerges into view, clearly having been working on a car or invention since the front of his band T-shirt, old and faded to the point where she can't even tell what band it is, and jeans are covered in splatters of motor oil and grease.

"Oh, good, you're here." He waves her over to the staircase and she climbs down from the barstool even as Pepper huffs.

"She still needs to fill out the paperwork, Tony," she scolds, but Stark rolls his eyes at her.

"She can fill it out later, Pep, I wanna get her set up in the lab first."

"You mean I'm actually working here?" Parker asks and both Pepper and Stark look at her. She flushes under the attention. "I mean, I won't be at SI?"

"Nah, it's way too boring there, you'd only be stuck at a desk all day." Stark waves dismissively. "You'll have more fun downstairs, and you'll get to meet the bots."

"The bots?" Parker feels her voice pick up a little in tone and Stark grins at her palpable excitement. "I can meet real robots?"

"Sure, sure. Don't get your hopes up, though, they're incredibly stupid. You can fill out the paperwork later." He raises his eyebrows pointedly at Pepper, who sighs heavily.

"Fine, take her downstairs. But remember, no explosions, she's only a kid."

"Yeah, yeah." Stark's already halfway down the stairs again.

"I'll be careful, I promise," Parker does her best to reassure Pepper, who doesn't look all that mollified as Parker grabs her backpack and hurries after Stark down the stairs. She joins him at the foot of the stairs in front of a sliding glass door, which he only has to approach in order for it to slide open.

"J, give Parker full access to the lab mainframe," he addresses the ceiling.

"Of course," JARVIS replies as Parker steps inside the lab. "Welcome, Miss Parker. I have taken the liberty of setting up your workspace for you." She looks around the lab as she makes her way to a table that glows white until she approaches it. Her side of the lab looks neat and unused while what's clearly Stark's side looks like a hurricane had passed through, turned around, and passed through again. There are mechanical parts and tools scattered everywhere and Parker has to step over a few as she sets her backpack down by her table.

"How do you work like this?" she asks Stark before she can stop herself and he blinks at her in bewilderment.

"Like what?" He glances around self-consciously. "Oh. Probably should've cleaned up a little." He shrugs one shoulder. "Come on, the bots are over here." He ushers her over to the other side of the lab, where three robots are nestled into the corner. "U, DUM-E, Butterfingers, we've got company," Stark calls and they perk up, wheeling over so quickly that Parker's afraid they'll fall over from excitement. Each robot consists of just one long claw with a camera attached to the top and a cylindrical body with wheels attached, but they make up for their lack of faces with how rapidly they start beeping when their camera lenses focus on Parker's face. "They're excited, they don't get to meet strangers often," Stark informs her.

"Why'd you name them like that?" she asks as DUM-E clumsily attempts to pat her shoulder with its claw. She awkwardly pats its claw back, which seems to make it happy as it beeps and nuzzles in closer.

"I told you they're stupid," Stark answers with a shrug. "Don't be surprised if they douse you with a fire extinguisher even if you're not on fire. They do that." Despite how annoyed he sounds, he smiles a little as Butterfingers cuddles up to his side and absently pets the robot's chassis. "You can push them away if they start bugging you."

"No, it's okay. They're cute," Parker reassures him, grinning as U wheels up to her and beeps plaintively until she pets its claw. "How do you program them to have so much emotion? Can you even program emotion?"

"You can simulate it, sure, but it's not nearly the same thing. And I actually didn't have much to do with it," Stark admits. "Once I put the basic framework in, the rest of their evolution's up to them. As you can see, the bots stopped at toddler-level and need constant maintenance while J's practically self-sufficient."

"Appreciated, sir," JARVIS deadpans.

"You should be nicer to your babies," Parker says as she scratches U's claw gently until it begins to whirr, sounding like a contented cat.

Stark sputters a little as she returns to her empty side of the lab and DUM-E follows her. "They're not my babies!" He frowns at DUM-E when it picks up a tennis ball and holds it out to Parker with a whine. "No, DUM-E, she's not gonna play fetch with you." DUM-E insistently pushes the ball at Parker until she takes it and gently tosses it towards the couch on the back wall. DUM-E happily rolls after the ball, beeping as it goes. "You're spoiling them," Stark says, sounding disgruntled, and Parker frowns as she turns back to him.

"Well, I can stop playing with them if you don't like it." It's not as if she wants to upset her new employer on her first day at work, after all.

Stark sighs. "No, no, they need the stimulation, I guess," he mutters concedingly, rubbing a hand over his face. "Just don't make it a habit or they'll never leave you alone."

"I don't mind," Parker answers as DUM-E returns the tennis ball to her proudly and she rewards it with a pat on its chassis before throwing the ball again for it to chase. She's careful to aim away from the glass chamber on the wall holding the red and gold suit that so many of her classmates had seen. "How'd you build that suit?" she asks as she turns back to Stark, who looks less annoyed now and more considering.

"Why do you want to know?" he responds with a question of his own.

"Well, I heard it could fly, so I wanted to know how."

Stark nods as he moves over to his desk, which is covered in what Parker now notices are pieces of the suit, including a gauntlet with its fingers splayed outwards. "Repulsor technology," he tells her, tapping the clear circle in the center of the gauntlet's palm. "The suit's powered by an arc reactor, and the repulsors are both for flight and weaponry."

"Arc reactor?" Parker echoes and Stark taps his chest this time. Where it should have made a dull sound, Parker hears a sharp clink of metal instead.

"Extremely strong magnet, keeps metal shrapnel out of my heart." When Parker opens her mouth to ask why he even has metal shrapnel in his chest, he quickly changes the subject before she can get the words out. "So, venipuncture app. Sounds pretty advanced for your age. How much programming do you know?"

"Not a whole lot," Parker confesses as she pulls out the ancient laptop she had bought second-hand with pocket money she had saved up to set it on her workbench. Stark's expression shifts into something amused the same way it had when she had given him her flip phone.

"Okay, we're gonna need to work on getting you up to speed, tech-wise." He opens his mouth to add something else, but JARVIS interrupts them.

"Pardon me for the intrusion, but Agent Coulson has arrived upstairs and requests your and Miss Parker's presence."

"Phil?" Parker blurts out, bewildered. _Also, Agent?_ she thinks, but decides not to linger too much on it. "He's here? Why?"

Stark looks uncomfortable as he shuffles a little on the spot. "I may not have been entirely truthful about why you're here."

* * *

 **Dun dun dun.**

 **Also, I totally wasn't kidding about how psyched I am to update this story and get to the rest of the Avengers. I'm going to try to avoid what I inevitably do with most of my fics, which is write the ending, which always ends up demotivating me to write the middle bits to get to the ending.**

 **(also lol totally forgot that Peter Parker exists in this world and every time JARVIS says Miss Parker, it sounds like a relation to him, I promise Parker's not related in any way to Spiderman)**

 **Hope you enjoy!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

* * *

"Oh my God, I _have_ been kidnapped, I knew it," Parker says, horrified.

That startles Stark out of whatever mysterious guilt he's feeling as he snorts with amusement. "Give me a break. If I was kidnapping you, I'd be a lot less subtle about it." He sets down the gauntlet on the workbench before heading for the door, raising an eyebrow at Parker when she just stares at him. "Well, come on. Agent's waiting."

"His name's Phil, not Agent," she says as she follows him, belatedly realizing that she's left her backpack against her workbench when the door closes behind them. Well, there's no escape now, in any case.

"Sure, whatever." Stark waves his hand dismissively. He seems to do that a lot, and the more often he does it, the more it annoys Parker.

As they reach the top of the stairs, Parker sees Phil standing by the couch in the living room, looking as nervous as Stark had in the lab. He's clutching a folder with an odd insignia on it - the shadow of an eagle's head and wings against a gray circle.

"What's going on?" Parker demands as they approach him and Phil chews his lip as he glances at Stark, who shrugs back at him and gestures for Parker to sit on the couch. She remains standing, crossing her arms stubbornly, and Stark sighs.

"Look, this is gonna be a long conversation and you'll wanna sit down for it."

"I'll stand," she answers stiffly, clenching her jaw.

"Calm down, Park," Phil says, but she ignores him.

"I want to know why exactly I was brought here and what you lied to me about," she addresses Stark.

"To be fair, we would've picked you for the summer program at SI regardless," he hedges.

"Regardless of what?" she retorts and to her surprise, he flinches. She's not that intimidating, or even that tall, so she wonders why he's afraid of her.

Phil cuts in, "You can either sit down and get some answers or keep getting angry at us and get none. Pick an option." His tone is sharper than she's ever heard him use with her and she sits down on the couch after a moment's hesitation, dropping her gaze to her knees and biting her lip to keep her temper in check. Phil sighs as he sits down beside her and places the folder in front of her on the glass coffee table.

"What is that?" she asks quietly, not daring to look at him as she studies the folder's front. It's unmarked aside from the eagle insignia and a stamped CLASSIFIED in red ink on the front.

"Your file." Phil's tone is calmer now, and even a little apologetic for snapping at her.

"From the system?"

"Not exactly," Phil admits, "I guess you've figured out by now that I'm not really your case worker." He doesn't stop her as she picks up the folder and sets it on her knees before opening it.

"I knew it," she mutters as she scans the first page. It's the usual information about her - her name, her passport photo, her physical characteristics, the boxes reading "N/A" where her parents' names should be - but something unfamiliar catches her attention.

In bold, black letters, the word "Avatar" is written under her picture.

Phil is talking, and she catches the tail end of his sentence as she turns her attention back to him. "...work for an organization called SHIELD."

"Oh, hey, you shortened the name," Stark says cheerfully.

"Not now," Phil says stiffly and Stark wisely falls silent.

"This is SHIELD?" Parker taps the eagle insignia on the front of the folder.

"Yeah. Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division." She chances a look up at Phil, who's watching her nervously for a reaction.

"Kind of a mouthful," she says and it's clearly the right thing to say, since he relaxes a little with a wry grin.

"Yeah, that's been said." He throws a look at Stark, who's settled into an armchair near the couch with a small smirk.

"What does 'Avatar' mean?" Parker flips the folder back open and points to the caption underneath her picture.

"I was kind of hoping to lead up to that," Phil says dryly.

"Throw her a bone here, we've beaten around the bush as it is," Stark interrupts as he leans forward, his elbows on his knees. "Look, there are things you can do, right? Freaky things involving raw elements like water and fire?"

Parker blinks at him, instinctively shutting her folder and clutching it close. "How'd you know that?" She turns an accusing glare on Phil. "Did you tell him?" Phil raises his hands in surrender.

"Call it a lucky guess," Stark reassures her, grinning a little.

"So what if I can do that stuff?" she demands as she tightens her hold on her folder, her heart pounding in panic. She wants to make a run for the door, but her backpack with her phone inside is still down in the lab. "Doesn't mean I can't control it. I'm getting good at it, too. I haven't had an incident in months."

"And I'm really proud of you for that," Phil says soothingly, prying her folder away to set it on the coffee table again. "You were crushing it," he says in response to her scowl.

"I'm not a freak," she tells Stark, who raises his eyebrows.

"Never said you were." He turns a frown on Phil. "Have people been telling her that? What the hell kind of homes have you been putting her in?"

Phil looks a little embarrassed even as he answers dryly, "I wouldn't've had to put her in any home if you'd followed your father's last wishes like you were supposed to and adopted her."

Wait, _what_?

"You were supposed to adopt me?" Parker's voice cracks and Stark turns his attention back to her, looking extremely abashed now.

"Long story, lots of daddy issues. Kind of said a big 'screw-you' to the part of his will where he said to look out for you."

"I wasn't even born when he died," she insists. "I don't understand."

"Just give us a minute to explain and you will," Phil says, placing a hand on her knee to calm her down. She does her best to take a deep breath and relax, but it doesn't help much. "There's a name for what you can do with controlling the elements. It's called bending. Centuries ago, there used to be benders of all kinds, who could only bend one element depending on where in the world they were from. They all slowly died out, but there's always been one bender who can bend all four elements. That bender's called the Avatar."

"What makes the Avatar so special?" she prompts as she chews her lip, taking the information in.

"Okay, this is where it gets into the weird spiritual stuff that nobody really understands yet," Stark takes over, rolling his eyes. "Basically, each generation, one person's singled out by whatever ethereal powers are out there to keep the world in balance. Then when that person dies, their reincarnation takes over keeping everything in check, and so on."

"And if that person doesn't want to be singled out?" she says, frowning now. "What if that person wants to live a normal life?"

"Kind of not in the books for you. You were always gonna be special." Stark gives her a tiny sympathetic smile, which looks strange when she's only ever seen him smirking. "Sorry, kid. No getting out of being who you are."

She exhales slowly, scrubbing a hand over her face. "So what does all this have to do with your dad?"

"Well, my dad knew your past reincarnation. She was in World War II with him." She files that away as an interesting fact about...herself, she supposes. "She died in '95, and you can guess where this is going."

"She got reincarnated into me," she says slowly.

"When my dad died in '91, his will said that I was supposed to look out for you whenever you were eventually reincarnated. Which I kind of threw out the window." Stark drops his gaze away from her and she can't help but feel somewhat sorry for how guilty he clearly feels.

"It's okay." Stark looks up at her again, looking a little like she's just hit him over the head with a heavy object. "I mean, it's not like it really screwed me up or anything, growing up in the system. No harm done."

Phil squeezes her shoulder gently. "Speaking of which, that's going to change. I brought the papers for you to sign, Mr. Stark, if you'd like them."

"Yeah," Stark says immediately and Phil passes over another folder of papers and a pen. Stark takes them before pausing, glancing back at Parker. "If you want me to, I mean."

"Want you to what?" Then it clicks. "You want to adopt me?" Her voice breaks embarrassingly again and Stark cracks a small smile. "Even with the incidents?"

"You won't be having many of those anymore," Phil reassures her. "Officially, you're working for Stark Industries now, but we'll be moving your actual training to SHIELD headquarters."

"I'm gonna be trained?" Parker feels like crying - whether out of joy or fear, she's not sure - but swallows the lump in her throat before she can embarrass herself further.

"Okay, first things first. How badly do you wanna get out of that children's home?" Stark interrupts, thankfully distracting her from the overwhelming flood of emotions rising in her chest.

"More than anything," she says firmly and without hesitation, he signs his name on the papers before getting up and handing them back to Phil, who's smiling as he tucks them and Parker's file into his briefcase before getting to his feet.

"We'll have the forms expedited so you'll become her legal guardian faster," he informs Stark, who nods and turns back to Parker. She gives up on trying to contain her tears as they well up in her eyes.

"When do you wanna move in?" She can't bring herself to answer as she stands and throws her arms around him, burying her face into his chest. The corner of her forehead presses slightly against something hard and metallic, which she assumes is the arc reactor. Stark makes a startled sound, almost like a yelp, before awkwardly patting her back. "Okay. This is a thing that's happening. Um. There, there?" He sounds a little terrified and she does her best to pull back as quickly as she can, wiping her eyes with a broad smile. It's not exactly the family she's always imagined getting adopted by, but it's a start, at least.

"When do you want me to move in?" she manages to get out past the tightness in her throat and Stark grins widely.

"We can get you moved in by tonight, if you want." She nods immediately and Stark adds to Phil, "When exactly is her training supposed to start?"

"Ideally as soon as possible," Phil admits, "We won't send her on field missions until she's good and ready, though."

"What kind of missions?" Parker asks and Phil shakes his head.

"We'll get to that later." He gives her a reassuring smile. "What matters right now is that you get control of your bending and be able to use it whenever you need to."

"Does that mean I'm not actually gonna get to work on my venipuncture app project?" She doesn't mean to sound as disappointed as she does, but it makes Stark laugh a little.

"Well, I can't fault you for your enthusiasm for it," he agrees. "And I'll work on it with you if you're really keen on pursuing it. It'd be a good addition to SI now that we've changed tracks from weapons manufacturing."

Parker nods in agreement. "I'd like that. I wanna keep working on the stuff I like just as much I want to learn to control my bending." She's giddy with relief and excitement at the thought of having a real home and a chance to learn to use the powers she's been so afraid of her whole life.

Phil's phone chirps and he looks at it, frowning now. "I have to get back to headquarters."

"She'll be fine, Coulson, go ahead," Stark insists, placing a hand on Parker's shoulder to squeeze it gently. She has to physically restrain herself from leaning into the contact to avoid startling Stark like she had before.

Phil looks a little torn, so she adds, "I'll be okay, really. And I've got your number if anything comes up."

He chews his lip, nodding. "That's true. Promise you'll call me if you need anything? I won't be far away." She nods and he grabs his briefcase to leave, which instinctively makes her move forward to wrap her arms tightly around him. He freezes in surprise, his free arm hovering awkwardly over her back.

"Thank you," she mumbles into the front of his suit and he relaxes slightly, squeezing her back gently.

"You don't have to thank me for anything." He ruffles her hair affectionately as he lets go. "I'll see you soon, okay?" She nods again, stepping back reluctantly to let him leave.

Stark places a hand on her shoulder again once the door shuts behind Phil, offering, "You wanna head to the children's home and pack your stuff?"

She nods in agreement. "I don't have a lot of stuff, anyway, so packing won't take more than a couple minutes."

His expression twists a little, as if he wants to ask why exactly she doesn't have a lot of stuff, but he doesn't say it out loud, shrugging instead. "Sure, sounds like a plan. Come on." He ushers her outside, where Happy's waiting by the car and snaps to attention when they step outside.

"Back to the home, boss?" he asks as he opens the door for Stark and Parker to climb in.

"Yep. We're packing Parker's things and moving her here." It still sends a thrill through Parker whenever she hears it as she settles into the backseat of the car and buckles her seatbelt on instinct. Stark notices and rolls his eyes.

"Car safety is very important," she tells him, frowning, and he makes a show of sighing heavily before buckling his own seatbelt reluctantly. She sees Happy grinning in the rearview mirror as he starts up the car to begin driving.

"Think fast." Parker doesn't have time to react as Stark tosses a small water bottle at her, her hands flying up to protect her face from the impact. The water bottle never even reaches her hands and thumps harmlessly to the seat between them as she lowers her hands slowly.

"What the hell was that for?" she demands and Stark grins at the clear indignation on her face.

"Just wanted to see how you'd perform on instinct. Not bad."

"Why? I didn't do anything," she points out, frowning. "It didn't even reach me."

Stark raises his eyebrows. "You mean you didn't notice that you just sent a blast of air at the bottle to stop it?" Now that he mentions it, she does see that his hair looks slightly more ruffled than it had a moment earlier.

"No, I didn't." She drops her gaze to her hands in her lap, studying them, but they don't seem to be out of the ordinary. "I don't usually know when I'm bending," she admits quietly, biting her lip.

"Well, you can work on it." When she dares to peek up at Stark again, she's surprised to find that he's watching her consideringly rather than looking upset the way Phil usually does when she accidentally uses her powers. "Any chance I can get some blood samples from you?" Well, that explains it.

"I don't like needles," she informs him and he looks distinctly put out. "And quit throwing things at me. I once set a car on fire when someone startled me," she adds as she picks up the water bottle to twist open the cap and take a sip. That had been one of the worse incidents she had caused, and somehow, Phil and SHIELD must have covered it up because it had never been brought up again by anyone.

Happy makes a slightly strangled noise from the driver's seat as Stark hurriedly says, "Okay, okay. No more throwing things at you." He pauses. "Without prior warning."

She supposes she'll have to settle for that.

* * *

 **You can tell how eager I am to get into Avengers territory. I'm hoping this is a good introduction to Avatar lore, and I definitely plan on expanding on it in the future. It does feel a little rushed in this chapter, but it's kind of meant to as we see Parker training and developing her understanding of her bending more.**

 **I'll be working on grading for the course I'm teaching more frequently from here on out, so updates may not be extremely close together, but I'll do my best to get as many as I can out before the summer ends!**

 **Hope you enjoy it and please leave a review on how it's going so far!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

* * *

Stark - "oh my God, no, do _not_ keep calling me Mr. Stark when you're going to be living with me, just Tony's fine" - has a strange expression on his face as he watches Parker quickly pack her duffel bag. She only has a few shirts, a sweatshirt, and three pairs of jeans, so it takes her a grand total of five minutes to fold all of her clothes neatly and put them inside the duffel bag before adding the jewelry box containing the necklace Phil had given her for her birthday and an old, frayed stuffed bear she's had for as long as she can remember. Everything else is in her backpack, which is still on the floor of Tony's lab back at the mansion.

"Where'd you get that?" Tony asks, startling her since he's been so quiet ever since they had come up to her room.

"My bear? I've always had him." She shrugs a little, her grip on the teddy bear tightening protectively as she carefully tucks it inside the duffel bag. "Phil says he came with me from the hospital when I was put into the system."

"Well, he definitely looks his age." Tony eyes the bear critically, lingering on the space where one of its button eyes had fallen out over the years and the torn seam in its left shoulder. Parker frowns and zips the bag up so that the bear's hidden from view before slipping the strap onto her shoulder.

"Okay, I'm ready."

"That's it?" Tony raises his eyebrows and she chews her lip as she runs through a mental list of all her things, glancing around the room to make sure she hasn't forgotten anything.

"Um, yeah, that's it. I told you I didn't have a lot of stuff."

His mouth presses into a thin line. _Excuse me for not being a billionaire_ , she thinks dryly, but doesn't say it in case it might offend him. "Okay, we're going to have to fix that. I'll have Pepper take you out shopping soon for some new clothes and things for your room."

"She's probably busy with work, I don't want to bother her-" Parker tries to insist, but Tony shakes his head.

"Her job's whatever I say it is." He gives her a small grin. "Besides, she likes shopping. You'll have fun with her." He ushers her out to the car and she's glad the nuns had already gotten the call that she's moving out. Phil really hadn't been kidding about expediting the adoption paperwork.

As she climbs into the backseat of the car and buckles her belt before setting her duffel bag at her feet, she asks, "What do you mean, things for my room?"

"Y'know, decorations. Posters and stuff. Kids like posters, right?" Tony looks bewildered, as if he had never considered how a kid might decorate a bedroom.

"What did you have in your room growing up?" she asks and he wrinkles his nose.

"If I remember right, blueprints for inventions I was working on." He gives her a wry smile. "You could try that."

She huffs a small chuckle as she shakes her head. "I don't think I'm nearly smart enough for that, but I appreciate the offer."

Tony frowns at that, but doesn't respond.

* * *

Pepper seems delighted to take Parker to the nearby mall to get her new clothes and decorations for her room, which is far more excited than Parker is as she tries on several pairs of jeans and T-shirts in the changing room of the department store.

"We should get you to the tailor for some formal dresses soon, too," Pepper muses as Parker piles together the jeans and shirts she likes most out of the ones she's tried.

"Formal dresses? Why?" Parker asks. She doesn't think she's ever worn a dress before, having opted to wear nicer jeans and T-shirts whenever someone came to the children's home looking for children to adopt.

"For events, galas. Anything where you might have to make a public appearance," Pepper answers as she helps Parker pile everything into a shopping cart and wheel it to the front of the store to pay. "Kind of a pain, but you get used to it," she adds as she pulls out a black credit card and passes it over to the sales clerk.

"I didn't know I'd have to go to those," Parker says, frowning as she chews her lip. She's not sure how exactly she'd pull off a public appearance when she's never even worn a dress before, much less been in the public eye. "Am I gonna be in tabloids and stuff?"

Pepper sighs as she grabs the shopping bags from the counter, leading Parker out of the store. "Probably. I'm going to try and filter out the negative media as much as possible, it's part of my job. I have a feeling you'll make it easier for me than Tony does, in any case. Not like you'll end up in any scandals." Parker must clearly not look relieved enough, because Pepper quickly changes the subject. "How about we get ice cream before we go to the home decor store?" Parker's only had ice cream a handful of times in her life when Phil had taken her out as a treat, so she nods in agreement as Pepper steers her over to Baskin Robbins.

Parker peers at the flavors of ice cream as Pepper orders an iced coffee and a scoop of cookie dough ice cream for herself before glancing at Parker for her choice. Parker chews her lip before deciding on mint chocolate chip, which Pepper relays to the college-aged girl behind the counter. Once they get their ice cream, they take a seat at a small white table near the doorway.

"It's a good thing you didn't get strawberry," Pepper admits as she sips her iced coffee. "I'm allergic."

Parker grimaces in sympathy, swallowing a spoonful of ice cream. She decides that she likes mint chocolate chip a lot. "That sucks. I'm sorry."

Pepper grins wryly. "Well, it is what it is. As long as I avoid them when I get fruit baskets or something, I'm fine. You don't have any allergies, do you?"

"Peanuts, I think," Parker answers. "I've never been officially tested for allergies, though."

Pepper nods thoughtfully, pulling her phone out to make a note on it. "We'll have to get you a full medical exam soon, anyway. I'm sure your last one is in your file, but I doubt that's been updated in a while."

Parker frowns. "Do you have to?" She doesn't meant to sound as nervous as she does, but it makes Pepper laugh a little.

"Relax. It's not like we're sending you to a torture chamber. I promise I'll find you a nice doctor," she reassures the teenage girl. Parker's not convinced, but decides not to complain.

After they finish their ice cream, they head to a home decor store where Parker picks out a few posters of landscapes that she thinks are pretty to make Pepper happy. As Pepper pays and passes the bag for Parker to hold onto, Parker decides to voice a question that's been on her mind for some time.

"Why does Tony have metal shrapnel in his chest?" Pepper stops in her tracks and Parker nearly collides into her. She's alarmed to see that Pepper looks almost like she's about to cry. "You don't have to tell me," she says quickly, not wanting to upset Pepper. "I just wanted to know since he mentioned it."

"No, no, it's okay," Pepper insists, giving Parker a reassuring smile even as she rearranges her expression quickly into a calm one. "I just didn't know whether you'd want to hear it from me or from Tony himself." She ushers Parker outside the mall with her to wait on the sidewalk for Happy to pick them up as she adds, "Tony's been through a lot in the past few months. He just got back from Afghanistan a few weeks ago, where, um...where he was held prisoner for three months."

"Three months?" Parker echoes, stunned.

Pepper nods. "A bomb went off near him when he was doing a sales pitch for the U.S. troops and the shrapnel was embedded in his chest. He invented the arc reactor in the cave they were holding him prisoner to keep the shrapnel out of his heart." She looks increasingly more upset, so Parker decides not to ask her any further questions, even though she has several.

"Okay. That's...wow." She runs a hand through her hair, chewing her lip. "Is he gonna be okay?"

Pepper gives her a small, sad smile. "Well, not overnight, he isn't. But we have to give him time, okay? And don't push him to talk about it." Parker nods as Happy pulls up with the car.

* * *

Once Parker and Pepper arrive back at the mansion, JARVIS directs them upstairs to a bedroom that he informs Parker is across the hall from Tony's. She pushes open the door and her mouth falls open at the sight of the bedroom.

It's far larger than any bedroom she's ever seen. An entire wall is made of tinted glass and the other walls are painted dark gray, like steel. There's a mahogany desk set up in the corner with Parker's backpack draped over the back of the chair. The duffel bag she had brought from the children's home is sitting in the middle of a large soft-looking bed with dark blue covers.

She sets the bags she's carrying down on the floor as she makes her way to the window slowly. The moment her fingertips make contact with the dark glass, the tint dissolves away to reveal the pristine beach and ocean beyond the house. Late afternoon sunlight filters into the room, illuminating the room and making it glow.

"Wow," she breathes and Pepper chuckles behind her as she sets the bags she's carrying down as well.

"The view's pretty nice from here, isn't it?" Parker nods speechlessly, stunned as she presses her hand to the glass. "You can go down to the beach and explore it, if you want. It's private. Just be careful not to get your shoes into the water or track sand back into the house."

"I won't," Parker promises as she hurries out of the room and rushes downstairs and out the front door to the beach. She takes off her shoes before she reaches the sand and leaves them on the wooden boardwalk that separates the house from the beach. The sand is incredibly soft under her feet as she moves to the edge of the water to let the waves wash over her toes.

She's not sure how long she stands there, breathing in the salty ocean breeze and watching the sun drift slowly lower towards the horizon until Tony's voice behind her startles her.

"You ever tried bending on purpose?"

She turns to see him coming down to stand beside her, the legs of his jeans rolled up just enough that the water doesn't touch them and his shoes abandoned beside hers on the small boardwalk.

"No, I haven't," she admits. "Always been too nervous to try. Besides, I couldn't control it even if I did."

"Hm." Tony studies her for a moment before looking around with a small shrug. "Well, it's just us here. Go for it."

"I literally just said I can't control it," Parker points out. "And I don't wanna hurt you."

Something in Tony's expression softens slightly even as he cracks a smile. "You won't, relax. Just try it. You're gonna have to get used to it sooner or later." He nods to the water lapping against the edge of the beach. "Have at it."

Parker hesitates, turning back to the water and silently willing it to come to her as it often does without her knowledge. It doesn't do more than splash halfheartedly in her direction and she turns back to Tony plaintively. "See? I can't do it," she says, frowning as she crosses her arms. "And why do you wanna see me bend so badly, anyway?"

Tony raises an eyebrow at her. "You can't blame me for being curious about how it works. Besides, you'll learn, that's what the training at SHIELD will be for." He pats her shoulder lightly. "Relax. You're not gonna hurt anybody."

She bites her lip, wanting to argue that he doesn't know that, he hasn't seen what she can do, before deciding not to bother. It doesn't seem like he would believe her unless he saw exactly how destructive she could be. "Thanks for the room," she changes the subject instead. "It's really nice."

Tony grins a little. "I thought you'd like it. Happy said he'd seen you admiring the ocean view on the way to the house. Pepper's arranging a windowseat to be installed in your room so you can sit by the window if you want."

"That'd be great." Parker can't help a small smile at the thought of being able to sit and read by the window with the ocean in sight. "I'd like that a lot."

"Come on, let's get back inside. I think Pepper's ordering pizza in for dinner." Tony's already turning back towards the house and Parker hurries to follow him, grabbing her shoes to tug them on once she shakes the sand from her feet.

The rest of the evening passes quickly enough; Parker eats pizza with Pepper and Tony, content to listen as they bicker back and forth goodnaturedly almost like a married couple before they all part ways, Tony retreating down to the lab to tinker with his suit while Pepper returns to her own apartment. Pepper gets a call from Phil on the way out the door and tells Parker that she'll have to report to SHIELD headquarters the next morning. Parker's nervous, but decides not to think about it as she makes her way up to her room again to change into the new pajamas Pepper had bought her.

As she climbs into the bed and settles under the covers, marveling at how soft they are, JARVIS pipes up, "Would you like me to raise the tint from the window, Miss Parker?"

"Yes, please." As the words leave her mouth, she watches the tint dissolve away from the window as moonlight streams into the room, glinting off the ocean in the distance. "Thanks, JARVIS," Parker says as she lays down, watching the waves wash over the rocky shore.

"You're welcome, Miss Parker. Sleep well." The lights dim in the room and JARVIS falls silent, allowing Parker to watch the ocean until she slowly drifts into sleep, feeling truly content for the first time in her life. Whatever awaits her at SHIELD the next morning can wait.

* * *

 **lol the writer's block is too real but I got this up just in time for Independence Day :D** **I'm also working on the first chapter of my Avatar sequel, promise! Teaching my summer class has just been really stressful lately.**

 **Hope you enjoyed it and I'll work on getting the next chapter up ASAP!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

* * *

As Parker steps out of the car and stares up at the massive steel building, she wonders how such a giant building can still seem so inconspicuous. There's not a sign anywhere stating that it's SHIELD headquarters right up until she enters through the revolving door and sees the giant eagle insignia looming over the entire lobby.

The receptionist at the front desk doesn't look particularly surprised to see a teenage girl approach her and ask to see Phil Coulson, but Parker gets the feeling that not much fazes the people working at SHIELD. She's directed to the fortieth floor, which is only a few away from the top floor, she discovers as she presses the button on the elevator.

She steps out onto the fortieth floor, relieved to hear Phil talking on the phone through the door of his office as she approaches it and knocks twice.

"Just a second!" Phil quickly finishes his phone call up and opens the door, smiling the moment he sees Parker. She relaxes a little without even realizing she had tensed up; at least some things aren't different, even though she understands a lot more about Phil's job now. "Hey. You get here okay?"

She nods. "Yeah, I did. Are you really that high up in SHIELD?"

Phil raises his eyebrows. "What makes you say that?"

"There are only forty-three floors in the building," she points out and he grins back at her.

"Well, I didn't want to brag." She rolls her eyes and he ushers her into the office. "Come on. We're still waiting on your trainers, so you can stay here in the meantime." The office is large and neatly decorated, with a few potted plants in the corners and a couch near the window overlooking the city below. Phil's desk is made of polished dark wood with a few framed photographs and a laptop sitting on it, and a leather chair behind it.

"My trainers?" she echoes as she takes a seat on the couch.

"A few of our agents, some of the best in the world," Phil answers, taking a seat at his desk. "They don't know how to bend, of course. No one does except you. But they can teach you the moves you need and how to control it."

Parker's a little disappointed that she won't get to see people who can actually control their bending, but stamps it down to ask, "So how can they teach me when they can't bend?"

"I don't know a lot about it myself," Phil confesses, "Not many people do. But from what I understand, bending each element is based on certain kinds of martial arts, so we can start by teaching you those. The good thing is, we've got a few journals for you in storage. Information your past life wrote out for you."

"She wrote out stuff for me?" Parker echoes, surprised.

"Yeah. Smart, right?" Phil cracks a grin. "Turns out she never really had that much training herself, and she wanted to pass on as much as she could to you. I guess she figured you'll pay it forward in the future."

Parker doesn't really want to think about dying and being reincarnated into someone else. "When can I look at these journals?"

"I'll have somebody send them home after your training today," Phil reassures her. The landline on his desk rings and he presses a button on it before picking up. "Coulson." Parker notices that his voice sounds different, just a little less warm and more professional. "I'll bring her down in a minute." He hangs up before turning back to Parker. "Looks like your trainers are ready in the gym, if you're ready to head down."

Parker nods, getting to her feet. "Yeah, I'm ready."

* * *

 _I wasn't ready_ , Parker decides mentally as she buries her face into the soft carpet in the living room of the mansion several hours later.

"Um, why are you on the floor?" Pepper asks, bewildered, and Parker tilts her head up so that Pepper can see her exhausted expression.

"Can't move. Everything hurts." She presses her face back into the carpet, scowling into it as Pepper barely stifles a giggle. "Traitor."

"I'm sorry, I just haven't seen anybody look this miserable in my life," Pepper apologizes, still chuckling as she settles on the floor beside Parker and sets her briefcase down before patting the top of Parker's head reassuringly. "Training went that badly, huh?"

"Not really," Parker concedes as she rolls over and forces herself into an upright position even though her muscles protest the movement. "It's just that I'm not nearly in good shape like they thought I was."

It really hadn't been so bad meeting SHIELD agents Melinda May and Natasha Romanoff, both tall, intimidating women who hadn't given Parker even a moment to catch her breath between teaching her different fighting tactics and walking her through various martial arts stances. The sparring session before she had returned home is the real reason that she's so sore now.

"Well, I just thought I'd let you know that a package arrived for you from SHIELD," Pepper says, drawing Parker out of her musings about her training session.

"Yeah, Phil said he had some journals for me," she recalls, getting to her feet reluctantly and accepting the box that Pepper hands over. "Thanks."

"Go shower," Pepper calls after her as she heads upstairs to open the box and Parker huffs a little as she sets the box on the bed, frowning at her sweaty appearance in the mirror. Maybe a shower _will_ do her some good.

Once she's scrubbed herself clean and dressed in some soft pajamas, her muscles just a little less achy, she settles herself in the new window-seat that Pepper had had installed while she had been at SHIELD headquarters - she makes a note to thank Pepper later - and opens a journal labeled with a sticky note that says "Read this first" to begin reading the note on the first page.

 _To the new Avatar -_

 _You're probably scared and very confused. I was, too, when I first found out who and what I was, why I could do the things I could. That's why I started this journal, to try and share as much of what I've learned to make it easier for you._

 _Centuries ago, the world used to be split into four nations, each corresponding to a single element - water, earth, fire, and air. Many people from these nations could manipulate their respective element, but only one person could control all four. That was the Avatar, who kept balance in the world and bridged the gap between the spirits' world and ours. Each generation, a new Avatar is born, reincarnated from their previous life, and the cycle keeps changing._

 _Over time, most benders died out, and nonbenders became more common, until bending itself became barely more than a myth. But the Avatar still keeps being reincarnated, which makes me think that the world still needs us. For what, I'm still not sure. But our job is to do what we can to keep the peace and bring balance to the world however we can._

 _You have great power in you. Learn to use it, and use my help to guide you. Don't be afraid._

 _Your friend and past incarnation,_

 _Rachel_

Parker traces her fingers over the loopy cursive writing slowly, imagining sitting at a desk and writing the note out for her future self to read. She makes a note to look up as much of Rachel as she can. The rest of the journal contains detailed sketches of a figure moving through various martial arts stances, little embers of fire, bits of rock, or waves of water following its movements. She studies them intently, itching to try them out herself, but not wanting to lose control and accidentally ruin Tony's mansion.

A knock on the door startles her and Tony peeks in, frowning. "Pepper said you've been up here for hours," he points out and Parker's stomach rumbles a little at the reminder that she hasn't eaten yet. Tony grins and brings in a carton of lo mein noodles and chopsticks to pass it over to her. "Figured I'd pass this along before I head down to the lab." He peers curiously at the journal in her hands. "Oh, hey, you got Rachel's books. I was wondering when SHIELD would hand those over."

"Did you know her?" Parker asks as she sets the journal aside to accept the carton and chopsticks from him.

"Not that well, but we met a few times when I was growing up." Tony settles on the window-seat beside her and picks up the journal to skim through it. "She was mostly just friends with my dad. But she was nice enough to me." He shrugs one shoulder mildly.

Parker struggles to pick up a noodle with the chopsticks and Tony takes them from her to quickly wrap the rubber band from the base of the carton around the top half of the chopsticks. She raises an eyebrow as he hands them back after clicking them together a few times experimentally.

"Little trick for beginners," he explains and, sure enough, it's much easier for her to eat. "You know, we've got an indoor pool here. Plus the pool and the ocean outside if you wanna try any of these out." He taps the page open on his knee, where Parker can see one of Rachel's drawings bending a stream of water and then flinging it out like a whip.

"I don't know," she says slowly. "It looks pretty dangerous. I don't really wanna be the reason your house gets ruined."

Tony snorts. "Are you kidding? I wreck something in the house almost every day. Trust me, it's not a big deal. You'll be fine." He sets the journal down, patting her shoulder lightly as he gets to his feet. "You don't have to if you don't want to, of course. Just a suggestion. The sooner you learn to control your bending, the better."

"Thanks," she says as he heads for the door and he turns in the doorway to give her a small smile.

"No problem, Park. Sleep tight." He shuts the bedroom door behind himself and Parker picks up another journal to flip through its contents. This one contains drawings and explanations for the basics of waterbending, and Parker thinks that maybe taking Tony up on his offer isn't such a bad idea.

* * *

As the summer kicks into high gear, so does Parker's training. She gets pushed harder each day by Agents Romanoff and May in training and then returns home to balance her bending practice with summer studies.

Deciding that the schooling she's been getting so far isn't up to his standards, Tony arranges for Parker to take a placement test for home-schooling. She's surprised when the results come back proclaiming that she's on the same level as someone who had just completed tenth grade.

Tony doesn't look surprised when she runs into his lab brandishing the test results.

"Well, of course you skipped a few years," he tells her pragmatically. "You're too smart to be in middle school, you should've been bumped up at least two or three years ago." She turns bright red and he grins wryly at her. "When are you gonna accept that when somebody tells you you're smart, they mean it?" She decides to make her escape before he can make her turn more pink. "Just be glad I'm not making you start college next year!" he calls after her, laughing as she shuts the lab door firmly behind herself.

She gets set up with an eleventh-grade curriculum to work through at her own pace, but she struggles to get even a week's worth of material done in a month. By the time July ends, she's able to call a stream of water towards her and flick it out like a whip and send fire blasts wherever she chooses, but can't find the derivative of a function to save her life, much less understand the "hidden meaning" in The Catcher in the Rye.

She complains to Tony one night and he shrugs. "Look, even if it takes you ten years to finish two years' worth of high school, that's fine. You've got a lot more on your plate than any other kid does."

She levels him with a dry glare and he just grins. "Thanks for reminding me," she grumbles and dutifully returns to scratching out solutions to the math problems in the textbooks he had had delivered for her.

Still, schoolwork aside, she's happier than she's ever been in her life. She's not bored by the homework she has every day - if anything, she finds the challenge a little exciting - and Tony makes a point to work on her programming skills with her whenever she finds the time. Despite his abrasive and at times strange humor, he's patient with her when she struggles with a new concept and takes his time in explaining it so she'll understand.

Even her SHIELD training gets easier with time, her stamina increasing exponentially until she's not even breaking a sweat by the halfway point. She succeeds in knocking Agent May down exactly once and the glower on the woman's face as she climbs to her feet convinces Parker never to attempt it again. Agent Romanoff brings a man with sunglasses to training sessions once in a while and he climbs into the rafters to watch them spar from above, which Parker decides not to think too much about. She's come to terms with how weird some people at SHIELD are. Phil refuses to send Parker out on field missions until she's older, which she understands since she's definitely too inexperienced to not die immediately on the field.

All of that changes when she leaves SHIELD headquarters one balmy evening near the end of August and finds not Happy with the usual black car waiting to take her home, but a large army Humvee instead with a stern-looking man dressed in army fatigues leaning against it. He has short gray hair and an equally gray thick mustache, his lips pressed together in a deep frown.

Parker makes to sidestep him, hoping Happy is parked across the street instead since this guy's clearly blocking the sidewalk, but the man holds out his arm to stop her.

" _You're_ the Avatar?" The disbelief coloring his gruff voice makes her tense a little.

"Who wants to know?" she demands, making a mental note to carry some kind of water container with her so that she can bend it readily if necessary.

"Get in the car and I'll explain," the man answers, opening the door. Parker wonders if he's insane, kidnapping her right in front of SHIELD, but since no one's rushed out to stop them, things clearly can't be as suspicious as she thinks. Slowly, with a glance at the security camera over the front doors of SHIELD, she climbs into the Humvee and the man joins her, tapping on the window separating the backseat from the front to make the driver begin moving. Parker glances out the window, trying to determine where she's going and then glancing back at the man.

"You said you'd explain?" she reminds him.

"Right." The man doesn't look any happier, not that she expects him to. "My name is Thaddeus Ross. General of the U.S. Army." He pauses, clearly expecting some sort of response, and so Parker awkwardly salutes him. He blinks, bewildered, so she assumes that wasn't what he had wanted. "We've got a mission for you."

"We?" Parker echoes and feels her phone buzz in her pocket.

"America," Ross amends as she reaches into her pocket and pulls her phone out to read the text from Phil.

 _Where are you? Stark's driver just came in saying he can't find you._

She sends a quick message back to him - _In the back of a Humvee with some guy named General Ross_ \- as she informs Ross, "I haven't been on a mission before. I'm not allowed."

"Well, there's a first for everything." Ross narrows his eyes at her. "Consider it your patriotic duty."

Her phone buzzes again.

 _Keep your phone handy. We're watching your tracker. Be safe._

That makes Parker feel just a little better as she tucks her phone away again. Ross watches the movement warily, as if worried that he was in trouble, and she just shrugs to put him at ease. "Okay. What do I have to do?"

He relaxes marginally. "You're needed in apprehending someone and bringing him in." Parker raises an eyebrow. "Normally, this wouldn't really require, er... _enhanced_ help, but in this case, it can't be helped."

He doesn't elaborate further, so Parker ventures, "Why's that?"

"Because the man we're bringing in is, well...let's just say that you're probably one of the few people in the world that can go toe-to-toe with him." Parker's mind spins with possibilities; is this guy another bender? Another _Avatar_? Of course, everything she's read in Rachel's journals has told her that there's only one Avatar, but the books could be wrong. Ross is still talking and Parker forces her attention back to him. "...he's headed to Harlem, New York."

"Is that where we're going?" She registers that the Humvee is slowing to a halt and the door is quickly opened for them. Ross climbs out and she reluctantly does the same, patting her phone to make sure it's safe in her pocket before looking up to find that they're parked on the runway beside a sleek jet. Ross is already climbing inside and Parker hesitates before climbing inside the jet as well, strapping herself into a seat and fumbling with the harness from how nervous she is. Within minutes, the plane is speeding down the runway and taking off and Parker peers out the window as much as she can to find them soaring past clouds. "We're not flying within flight regulations, are we?" she asks and Ross doesn't look amused when she looks at him.

"Time's of the essence, Miss Stark." She flinches at the stiff use of her new last name, but at least it's better than the generic "Smith" she had been stuck with before. "I've been hunting this fugitive down for almost five years now. The sooner we can get him into custody, the better."

"What did this guy do that was so bad?" she asks and Ross's expression is so thunderous that she decides it's better not to insist on a response. She focuses on the window instead, watching the jet zoom through the clouds at a speed that can't be legal.

A little belatedly, she's beginning to regret taking on this mission and hopes that Phil's promise of keeping tabs on her still holds while she's on her way to New York. Whatever's awaiting her there, she's almost entirely positive she's not prepared for it.

* * *

 **Dun dun dun.**

 **I don't know why it took me until 3 in the morning to summon enough motivation to write this out, but here it is! Hopefully it's not zooming too quickly, but I wanted to get to the end of this chapter so that I can properly get into the MCU! (well, as properly as the movie that's being hinted at in this chapter can be .)**

 **I hope you enjoyed it and I'll try to get the next chapter up ASAP!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

* * *

Parker's never been to New York, so she can't help but stare at the Statue of Liberty, so tiny and vividly green against the murky water down below, as the jet flies overhead. The skyline is beautiful, with lights that seem to glitter as the sun goes down and night falls over the city. She's not sure what exactly she expects to see - a plume of smoke, an explosion, _something_ that can give her a clue as to what exactly she's supposed to be facing - but whatever it is, she doesn't see it.

The jet lands on a runway, where they quickly switch to a helicopter, which takes off almost as soon as Parker buckles her restraints. The helicopter is small enough to land on a rooftop in Harlem almost soundlessly, much to her surprise, and Ross unbuckles his harness and stands once the engine turns off. Parker makes to undo her own restraints, but he waves her down.

"You're last-resort support, kid. Stay put until you're called in. Hopefully we won't need you at all and this guy will come quietly."

"And if he doesn't?" she says warily and he doesn't answer as he leaves the helicopter. Swallowing, she settles back into her seat, fiddling with her thumbs anxiously. She doesn't have to wait long before the ramp door at the back of the helicopter is yanked opened and two people are being led in. The man with curly salt-and-pepper hair looks exhausted and dazed with handcuffs on his wrists while the woman with long brown hair looks angry as she yanks her arm out of Ross's hold and drops into a seat near Parker.

"And you've brought a kid into this, too?" she snaps at Ross, who scowls back at her.

"That _kid_ is the Avatar." This seems to perk up the tired man slightly as he peers curiously at Parker, taking the seat opposite her. She shuffles self-consciously under the scrutiny and he immediately drops his gaze away from her again, as if sensing her discomfort. "She's the only one I could think of to be able to handle him." Ross nods to the tired man and Parker glances back up at Ross, bewildered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asks even as Ross gestures for the pilot to get the helicopter into the air. "He doesn't even look like he can hurt a fly, much less whatever you brought me in for." At that, the other man barely stifles a wry chuckle, but falls silent again when Ross glowers at him before turning to watch over the pilot's shoulder. "No, but seriously, though," Parker insists in an attempt to get some kind of explanation.

"Anyone ever tell you appearances can be deceiving?" the man finally speaks up. Even his voice is quiet and shy and she has trouble wrapping her head around the fact that he's supposed to be dangerous somehow. The woman beside Parker looks upset and opens her mouth in an apparent protest, but the man cautions quietly, "Betty." She shuts her mouth again, choosing to glare mutinously at Ross's turned back.

Parker chews her lip, debating whether to push her luck, before tentatively sticking her hand out to the man, offering, "Hi. I'm Parker."

The man looks vaguely amused as he reaches out to shake her hand awkwardly, since his hands are cuffed together. "Bruce. Hi."

"Word of advice, Miss Stark, don't introduce yourself to criminals," Ross snaps over his shoulder and Parker purses her lips, increasingly less sure that Ross is making the right decision, before making a point to also hold her hand out to Betty, who reluctantly smiles as they shake hands.

As the helicopter takes off, Betty reaches out and grasps Bruce's hands tightly in her own, the two of them sharing some kind of unspoken communication and glancing uneasily at Parker once in a while. She drops her gaze to give them some privacy, thinking that's the issue, but keeps peeking at them out of the corner of her eye only to find that they're still looking her way now and then before looking back at each other. Finally, Bruce shakes his head silently and Betty bites her lip hard, but doesn't pursue their silent conversation. Parker's not entirely sure what's going on, but whatever it is, it's clear she's ended up on the wrong side of this mess.

The radio crackles suddenly, turning her attention to the front of the helicopter. "Delta 4 to Leader, something big just went off down here!"

Ross raises an eyebrow and picks up the receiver to answer. "This is Ross, what went off?"

"The whole floor just blew out! Blonsky, Stoller, Robertson, and the Major, they were all still up there!"

Ross looks somewhat unnerved as he answers, "Get our teams moving back there and get PD Special Units out." He taps the pilot's shoulder. "Turn us around." The helicopter banks sharply as they turn around and Parker glances at Bruce and Betty to find that they both look just as bewildered as she feels.

"We're going back?" Bruce asks quietly to avoid getting Ross's attention and Parker just shrugs helplessly back at him.

Barely a few seconds later, the radio crackles again, a panicked voice shouting over the static, "The Hulk is in the street! Repeat, the Hulk is in the street!"

Everyone else in the helicopter freezes up and Parker frowns. "Uh, did I miss something?"

Ross glances back at them - belatedly, Parker realizes he's staring specifically at Bruce - before grabbing the receiver to reply sharply, "That's impossible. Get me visuals." The only response that greets him over the radio is a cacophony of soldiers shouting orders towards each other and Ross repeats angrily, "Goddamnit, I said get me eyes on that thing!"

Bruce gets up abruptly to peer over Ross's shoulder and Parker undoes her restraints to do the same, wobbling just a little as the helicopter banks sharply again. Betty moves to stand behind her, steadying her with a hand on her shoulder.

"What's going on?" Parker demands as she peers at the camera wobbling all over the place, not focusing on anything in particular. She thinks she sees something large and gray crushing and throwing cars on a street through the shaky motion, ugly bony spikes lining his back, but he can't be real - monsters don't actually exist in real life.

The radio finally crackles with a clear response. "Sir, are you seeing this? Is it Banner?"

Ross glances at Bruce again, his face pale, before answering the radio, "No. Is it Sterns?"

A different voice, sounding shaken, replies, "General, it's Blonsky. Sterns is dead. It's Blonsky."

The name doesn't mean anything to Parker, but it clearly does to Bruce, who swallows and tightens his hold on the back of the pilot's chair as he stares at the monitor on the helicopter console, and Ross, who turns sheet-white as he begins barking orders over the radio. They watch on the monitor as the monster tears through the approaching tanks, grinning horribly when missiles are launched at him and explode harmlessly against his skin, which seems to be invulnerable.

"General, the NYPD wants to know what to use against it. What do you want me to tell them?" the soldier on the other end of the radio demands, but Ross doesn't answer. "Sir?" the soldier tries again.

Parker watches civilians fleeing and trying to find shelter under cars and behind buildings wherever they can and comes to her decision. "Where are the parachutes on this plane?"

Ross wheels around to face her, bewildered. "What?"

"This is what you brought me in for, right? Situations like this?" She gestures to the monitor just as the monster grabs the next missile launched at him and throws it directly at the camera, which grays out instantly.

"Well, not _exactly_ like this-" Ross hedges, but she shakes her head to cut him off.

"I'm going down there. Get me a chute and a comms unit to keep in touch." He points under the helicopter seat and she retrieves a parachute, pulling the backpack on before accepting the tiny earpiece he holds out to shove it into her ear.

"You can't be serious," Betty protests, looking between them. "You're not really thinking of sending a twelve-year-old down there, are you?"

"Thirteen," Parker corrects mildly as she buckles the backpack securely around her waist, which doesn't seem to assuage Betty's concerns.

"She'll be killed!" Even Ross looks relatively uneasy, but Parker figures that he should have thought of that before bringing her into this mission.

Bruce's expression is grim when she looks up again. "I'm going in with her. She can't stop that thing alone."

"Forget it," Ross answers savagely, his expression morphing instantly into a glare. "If I put you down there, you won't fight, you'll run."

"We made that thing, you and I!" Bruce snaps back and Parker decides to ask questions later, even though her head is swirling with confusion. "We have to try _something_!" He turns to Betty, his expression softening. "I think you were right. It's still me. I heard you calling me on that table and I held on."

Betty bites her lip worriedly. "You think you can control it?"

"No. But maybe I can aim it." Bruce looks at the pilot. "Open the door." The pilot hits a button to lower the ramp. Wind whips around them and Parker cinches the last buckle on the parachute before making her way to the edge.

"Do I want to know what you're talking about?" she asks Bruce as she peers down over the city, swallowing. It's a long way down and she's a little relieved she isn't afraid of heights.

"You'll find out in a couple minutes. Hopefully," he answers dryly.

"Wait, what? Bruce, this is insane!" Betty grabs Bruce's hand. "You don't even know if you'll turn!"

"I have to try." Bruce gives her a small, sad smile. "I'm sorry." He kisses her briefly before pushing her back and falling out the door down towards the city.

Parker feels her heart leap into her throat as she leans over the edge to watch him get smaller and smaller, wide-eyed. "He wasn't wearing a parachute!" she protests, glancing at Betty, who doesn't look too concerned, albeit a little teary-eyed.

"You'll see soon," she says simply and Parker bites her lip before taking a deep breath and jumping out of the plane.

While she's never been skydiving before, she's been trained through simulations at SHIELD for scenarios like using a parachute over the past few months. The rush of wind around her as she falls is exhilarating and she manages to remember to pull her parachute at the last second. She drifts to a stop on a rooftop and tugs off the backpack before hurrying to the edge to survey the carnage.

The gray monster she had seen on the monitor is still smashing cars and throwing them around, relishing in the screams from the surrounding civilians. She hopes she doesn't see Bruce dead on the street below, but instead, she only sees a giant crater where he must have landed. Swallowing, she pushes her way through the rooftop access door and practically leaps down the flights of stairs, cushioning each hard landing with a small burst of air. She runs all the way down to the street level and skids to a stop at the edge of the hole to peer into it.

Suddenly, a huge green hand grabs the concrete right in front of her, making her yelp as she jumps back. As a second monster hauls himself laboriously out of the crater, shaking his head in a daze, Parker gapes up at him, wondering whether to run or not. He's easily ten feet tall, towering over her, and his forearm is twice the size of her head.

"Um." The small sound escapes her unconsciously and the monster's head whips down in her direction as his eyes focus on her. They're bright green like the rest of him - although his hair is black - but there's still something about his face that's vaguely familiar. " _Bruce_?" she blurts out, stunned, and he bares his teeth at her in acknowledgment before turning to break into a run and tackle the gray monster at the other end of the street. Parker stares after him, eyes wide as she slowly presses her earpiece. "General, I have so many questions."

"Think they can wait?" Ross answers irritably.

"Well, sure, but I feel like I'm missing a lot of context here," she points out.

"Save it for later and take that abomination out. The Hulk's on our side for now." The connection drops out and she bites her lip hard before hurrying after the green behemoth that had formerly been Bruce, trying to wrap her head around what had just happened.

Both monsters are tearing into each other with a ferocity Parker's never seen outside of the National Geographic Channel, but the gray monster seems to be somewhat larger and spikier than the Hulk is, which makes it easier for him to gouge deep wounds into the Hulk's shoulders and chest. The Hulk roars in pain as another wound is torn open on his shoulder and Parker feels her fist clench instinctively in sympathy for him.

Before she knows it, the fire hydrant closest to her bursts and water gushes out onto the street. Relieved at an easy source of water, she draws it to her the way she's been practicing, letting it curl around her wrist like a snake before whipping it out hard enough to lash the Abomination across the face. He roars in anger, turning sharply to face her, and she quickly draws another whip of water to her before latching it around his spiny ankle to pull as hard as she can.

His foot pulls out from under him and he topples over with another frustrated roar, his clawed hands splashing at the water in an attempt to relinquish its hold on him. The Hulk takes his chance to throw himself onto the Abomination, pummeling him as hard as he can. Each punch landing on the Abomination's tough skin sounds like a thunderclap and Parker has to cover her ears to protect them, letting the water fall away from the Abomination's foot.

It turns out to be a mistake as the Abomination shoves the Hulk off him with effort, turning his head to focus on Parker and baring his teeth in a sickening grin. She swallows, realizing that he's changed targets, and takes a few steps back as she clenches her fists to take a fighting stance. Firebending doesn't come nearly as easily to her as waterbending does, but she hopes her meager ability so far can protect her.

As the Abomination launches to his feet and charges at her, she punches forward, a fireball escaping her fist and flying directly into the monster's face. He howls in pain, clawing at his face until the flames dissipate, and she takes the distraction as an opportunity to duck out of sight as the Hulk throws himself back at the Abomination again.

The earpiece in Parker's ear crackles. "Park?" It's not Ross this time, but a panicked-sounding Tony.

"Tony?" she says, bewildered, as she looks around for some sign of a red-and-gold suit, half-hoping he's arrived for some backup. "How're you talking to me? Where are you?"

"I hacked into your comms, I'm on my way to Harlem now. Saw you on the news." He sounds angry now. "What the hell was Coulson thinking sending you out like this? You're not supposed to be on missions."

"In his defense, he didn't know until Ross had already taken me," Parker offers tentatively as she peeks over the car to find the Abomination throwing the Hulk straight through a building. "Um, this is kind of a bad time, can I call you back or something?"

Tony sighs heavily. "Just be safe," he mutters, sounding disgruntled, before the earpiece cuts out. Parker almost wishes she hadn't asked him to hang up, but then the Abomination begins stalking towards the car she's hiding behind, so she rolls out of the way just as he smashes his fist down into the car, drawing up a wall of concrete with a stamp on the ground to keep the pieces of metal shrapnel and glass away from her. She pushes the wall forward to knock the Abomination off-balance and away from her, which is when the gunfire begins.

The helicopter carrying Ross, Betty, and the pilot swoops down low, a machine gun on the bottom of the helicopter firing rapidly at the Abomination. Some of the bullets ricochet off his skin while others bury themselves deep into his gray skin, purplish blood welling where the bullets had made impact as he roars in pain. The helicopter soars back into the air as he launches himself at the side of a building - causing Parker to bring up another shield of concrete to keep the shards of glass from the broken windows from reaching her - to scale up to the rooftop. Parker runs into the building to reach the rooftop as well, bursting out through the roof access door just as the Abomination tears a satellite dish off the rooftop.

The Hulk scales the building and hops up onto the roof, tackling the Abomination just as he throws the satellite dish at the helicopter, making the dish only clip the tail of the helicopter rather than hit it directly. The helicopter spirals down, crashing into the rooftop even as the Hulk and the Abomination throw themselves through a water tower, which crashes down and douses the roof with so much water that Parker's standing ankle-deep in it.

Her shoes and socks quickly become soaked, but she's got bigger problems to worry about as the helicopter's tail begins to smolder and catch fire. She sees Betty and Ross, both covered in scratches and scrapes, pushing open the door to get out of the helicopter as the flames lick closer. The pilot is already dead from the crash, and it makes her throat tighten a little to see him slumped lifelessly over the console at the front of the helicopter.

The Abomination has his hands around the Hulk's throat, squeezing the life out of him, and Betty screams as she braces herself against the open helicopter door, "Bruce!"

The Hulk's eyes snap open at the sound of her voice, clearly recognizing it, and he roars as he grabs the Abomination's hands to wrench them away. Parker takes the opportunity to throw a wave of water over the helicopter, drenching it and extinguishing the fire so that Betty and Ross can climb out to safety. The Hulk roars again as he grabs a chain from where the water tower had collapsed, throwing it around the Abomination's neck and pulling as hard as he can to choke the gray monster.

"Don't!" Betty cries and the Hulk lifts his head to stare at her before slowly loosening his grip just enough that the chain isn't cutting into the Abomination's neck anymore. Slowly, the fight drains out of the gray monster as he goes limp, unconscious.

The Hulk drops him unceremoniously to the rooftop, heaving from the effort of the battle as he slowly approaches Parker first. He stares her down and she's briefly worried that he's decided to attack her, too, before he lifts his hand. She flinches, shutting her eyes tightly in preparation to be thrown halfway across the city, but feels only a light pressure on her head. She cracks her eyes open to find the Hulk patting her head gingerly.

"Tiny girl," he rumbles, his voice a deep bass that seems to resonate in her bones. She's taken aback, surprised he can even talk. "Smart. Strong. Good help."

She isn't sure how to react to the odd praise, but smiles tentatively at him all the same. "Um, anytime, big guy."

He grunts in response, moving past her to stop in front of Betty. "Betty," he says quietly and Parker wonders how someone so large and angry-looking can sound so tender.

Betty touches his hand delicately, barely brushing her fingertips over the green skin of his palm. "Shh. It's over." She smiles tremulously and Parker thinks she sees a hint of a smile on the Hulk's face as well, just for a moment, before another helicopter zooms into view over the buildings, a white spotlight illuminating his face. He squints at the light before turning and breaking into a run past Parker, leaping off the rooftop in a large bound and vanishing out of sight. When Parker looks back at Betty, the woman's expression is sad and resigned, as if she had expected him to run.

The helicopter that had triggered the Hulk's escape lands on the rooftop and to Parker's incredible relief, Phil climbs out, looking pale. She breaks into a run across the rooftop and throws herself into his arms as he catches her in a tight embrace.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He pulls her back to examine her worriedly and she shakes her head.

"I'm fine, Phil." He runs a hand through her hair and she finally feels the weight of what had just happened sink in as she leans heavily back into him, trembling a little as she shuts her eyes tightly. "I just wanna go home," she confesses quietly.

"Stark's coming to pick you up. And after that..." Phil's voice turns just a little hard and she peeks up at him to find him staring Ross down. "General Ross and I will need to have a talk about using certain SHIELD resources unnecessarily." Ross looks both shaken and abashed, and while Parker doesn't feel particularly pleased at being described as a SHIELD resource, she's still a little glad that Ross isn't going to get off scot-free.

Betty and Parker are both given shock blankets as they're ushered to a waiting ambulance once they get back down to the street, Ross refusing one as he joins Phil in the back of a sleek black car with the SHIELD insignia on the door. The Abomination, still unconscious, is loaded into a waiting van and locked up tightly. Parker doesn't even notice the thick orange blanket slipping off her shoulders until Betty moves forward to pull it back up for her, tucking it in firmly around her.

"Thanks," she says quietly and Betty gives her a tiny smile in return.

"I should be the one thanking you. You saved his life."

Parker shrugs mildly. "I figured he was on our side. I'm glad I was right."

Betty bites her lip before opening her mouth, preparing to say something else, but they're interrupted by paramedics checking them over for injuries. Just as the paramedics determine that Parker's healthy apart from a few scrapes and scratches, Tony arrives in another black car, looking more frazzled than she's ever seen him in a rumpled old band T-shirt and jeans.

"Tony!" Parker throws off the shock blanket and gets to her feet, ignoring the paramedics' protests as she closes the gap between herself and Tony. He wraps his arms around her in a tight embrace, pressing his face against the top of her head.

"Jesus Christ, kid, you're gonna give me a heart attack one of these days," he mutters into her hair. "You have any idea how scared I was seeing you on the news?"

"I'm okay," she reassures him as she pulls back, giving him a small, tired smile. "I just wanna go home. And maybe sleep forever."

He huffs a chuckle, wrapping his arm around her shoulders to usher her to the car. "We can do that, sure."

She hesitates, glancing over her shoulder at Betty sitting on the edge of the ambulance, before grabbing Tony's hand briefly to stop him. "Wait, just a second." He obediently lets go of her and she hurries back to the ambulance as Betty looks up again, a little surprised that Parker's returned. "Are you gonna be okay?" she offers tentatively and Betty smiles tiredly back at her.

"I'll be okay, don't worry. You should go home, it's been a long night." She bites her lip, clearly wanting to say something, but instead just says, "Be careful taking missions like this now on."

Parker cracks a grin. "Yes, ma'am." She returns to Tony's side, letting him usher her into the car, which takes them to the airport where Tony's private jet is waiting to return them to Malibu.

Once the jet is in the air, a cup of coffee in Tony's hands and hot chocolate in Parker's, he turns to her. "Okay, but I have to say, I was watching your bending on the way here." He nods to the television across from the couch they're sitting on.

She braces herself for some kind of criticism that she shouldn't have been bending when she was so inexperienced. "And?"

"It was pretty damn amazing." She looks up at him, bewildered, only to find him grinning broadly at her. "You really held your own out there. It's good to see that you're doing so well when you only just started training." He sobers again quickly. "But don't take that to mean you should be taking more missions anytime soon."

"Don't worry," she reassures him, relaxing against his side and taking a sip of hot chocolate. "I don't plan to. I've had enough adventure for a good long time."

Tony nods approvingly, slinging one arm loosely around her shoulders. "That's what I like to hear," he jokes and she elbows him back with a grin.

* * *

 **Oh, naïve innocent Parker, the adventures you will have, LOL. I enjoy writing a character who just doesn't want adventure for once, like Parker would just rather be home curled up with a mug of cocoa all the time if she had her say (to be fair, though, same).**

 **I'm so glad I got this chapter out of the way, because it's been really driving me nuts for weeks now. But that's The Incredible Hulk storyline, yay! :D We're really getting into the Marvel universe now, so hopefully the next chapters will start flowing more easily now.**

 **Hope you enjoyed it!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

* * *

As much as Parker really doesn't want to go on a mission anytime soon after her disaster of a first mission - although, really, it hadn't been _that_ much of a disaster, seeing as she had helped bring down a giant monster even if the Hulk had done most of the work - she can't help but appreciate the fame it gets her around SHIELD for the first few weeks after the mission.

Agents she's never even met before come up to her in the hallways to praise her for taking on the Abomination when she's so young and inexperienced - not that it had really been a choice for her, but she doesn't correct them. After she tells Agents Romanoff and May the story in her first training session after the mission, even they're impressed enough to reward her with small smiles before launching into their regular sparring session.

She gets home one day and enters the basement lab to find Tony tinkering on a suit that seems to be smaller than his usual Iron Man suit, frowning in concentration as he fiddles with the elbow joint.

"I hate to break it to you, but you're at least six inches taller than that," she points out dryly as she settles in at her own desk and opens her laptop to start working on her latest programming project - a rudimentary artificial intelligence algorithm that Tony plans to install into JARVIS to monitor the household security cameras and detect faces. She's sure it's something Tony could have programmed in his sleep - and probably already had - but he had given it to her as a practice assignment.

"It's not for me," he answers absently as he tightens a bolt into place. "It's for you."

Parker blinks, bewildered. "Me?" she echoes, surprised. "Last I checked, these hands have enough firepower on their own. Literally." She wiggles her fingers to make her point and he rolls his eyes.

"Well, I figure there's always a chance you might need more backup than just your bending. I'm working on a way to call the suit to you using a watch if you need it. That way it'll act like a shield around you. Maybe I can get it to open up around your hands so you can still bend," he muses as he turns to the hologram in front of him to tweak some details.

Parker takes the opportunity to study the suit - it's not bright red and gold like Tony's other suits, but instead a muted shade of navy blue with streaks of silver. "It's pretty," she offers, not wanting to sound ungrateful even though she's relatively sure she doesn't need a suit for protection.

Tony snorts a little with amusement as he turns back to the suit to twist off one of the gauntlets to survey it before opening up the palm to tinker with the repulsor inside. "It's supposed to protect you, not look pretty." He glances up at her and she notices suddenly just how exhausted he looks. "But thanks," he adds dryly.

She hesitates before getting to her feet and closing the gap between them to place a hand on his shoulder briefly. "Look, I appreciate that you're making me a suit, really. But maybe you ought to get some rest?"

Tony purses his lips a little, shrugging off her hand. "I'm fine. I just need to get this working, maybe start fixing the Mark V so I can make it more portable." He eyes the suit on the wall and Parker doesn't really like the manic look in his eyes, but she lets the issue go.

* * *

Perhaps the only negative aspect to her first mission is the fact that she had been caught on camera by a news channel in Harlem that night, which means that she has to attend press conferences and interviews to publicize herself as both Tony Stark's adopted daughter and the Avatar. Pepper has been working long enough for Tony that she's an expert in guiding Parker through the process of scheduling a press conference and morning show interviews.

"There's always going to be someone looking to make a negative statement about you," she says the morning of Parker's press conference, examining her blouse and pencil skirt critically to make sure they aren't wrinkled. "Just ignore them, answer the questions as matter-of-factly as you can, and duck out if you need to. I can always take over. Normally we wouldn't do press conferences with someone as young as you."

"So then why am I being sent out there?" Parker asks plaintively and Pepper gives her a sympathetic smile.

"You're a special case."

Parker rolls her eyes. "I'm a special case in every scenario, apparently."

Pepper bites her lip to stifle a smile as she adds, "People need a name and a face to the person they saw on TV that night, and it's a lot less negative press if you show them you're not dangerous."

"But I _am_ dangerous," Parker says dryly and Pepper gives up on hiding her smile.

"Well, it's probably best not to advertise that." She smooths down Parker's hair carefully before checking her watch. "It's time."

Parker almost wishes Pepper would keep stroking her hair, if only because it keeps her nerves marginally at bay. "Okay." She chews her lip anxiously as Pepper leads her onto the small stage, ducking her head against the onslaught of camera flashes and loud voices shouting questions in her direction. It's already overwhelming and she has to stamp down the instinct to bolt from the stage.

Pepper takes the microphone on the podium first, ushering Parker just behind her.

"Good morning. Thank you all for coming today." Her tone is sharp and professional, and Parker's reminded of Phil whenever he answers a call while working. "I'm sure you're all aware that we're here to address the recent events in Harlem, New York, last week. On Mr. Stark's behalf, I'd like to introduce his adopted daughter, Parker, to answer any questions you may have." She steps aside to let Parker take the microphone just as the news that Tony Stark has adopted someone sinks in and the reporters begin clamoring for answers, shouting out questions. Parker gapes at them all, feeling rather stupid for several moments, before finally having had enough.

"Can everyone shut up and wait their turn, please?" she blurts out into the microphone and the room falls silent almost instantly, allowing her to hear Pepper stifle a tiny chuckle behind her. "Oh. Cool, thanks." She feels her cheeks warm with embarrassment and clenches her hands on either side of the podium to stop herself from running offstage. "Just, uh, raise your hand if you have questions, I guess?" Everyone's hands shoot up instantly. "Oh. Um. Okay." She glances at Pepper, feeling overwhelmed, and Pepper just nods reassuringly, which Parker thinks is meant to help, but doesn't.

She tentatively turns back to the crowd of waiting reporters and points awkwardly at one of the reporters in the front row. The reporter stands, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder, and Parker can already tell she's not going to like this woman. "Christine Everhart, from Vanity Fair."

Parker hears a tiny strangled noise from behind her, but when she looks back over her shoulder, Pepper's expression is carefully blank. She turns back to Christine, not sure how to reply. "Um, hi, Christine," she tries.

"Oh my God, she's adorable," somebody in the crowd whispers, which causes the reporters to start muttering amongst themselves and scribbling things down. Parker feels her face heat up more as she resists the urge to run her hand through her hair and mess it up.

Christine looks a little taken aback. "Hi, Parker," she answers instinctively, but then clears her throat and returns to her professional mask. "Am I right in assuming you're the teenage girl we saw on the news last week in Harlem?"

"Um, yes, that was me." Parker takes a deep breath, glancing back at Pepper to make sure she's saying the right thing and receiving a nod before plunging ahead, "I was there because I was asked by the army to assist in capturing a fugitive." She feels a twist of guilt in her stomach, calling Bruce a fugitive when he had clearly been in the right, but she can't change how the world sees him.

"Why would the army enlist the help of a minor in capturing a fugitive?" Christine was scribbling notes on her notepad, keeping her eyes on Parker as she writes.

"I'm, uh." Parker feels her throat go dry and grabs the glass of water on the side of the podium to take a gulp before setting it down again. "I'm the Avatar." Phil had told her she would have to admit what she was to the press, but it doesn't make the sudden awkward, nervous silence she receives any less unnerving. Some reporters in the audience even look afraid of her, and she feels her stomach drop a little. "My job's to keep the world in balance," she continues, unsure what else to say. "That's why I was in Harlem last week. And why I'll keep being wherever I'm needed."

"But you're just a kid," Christine points out, pursing her lips. "Not to mention you're apparently under Tony Stark's guardianship."

"What's that got to do with anything?" Parker tenses and Pepper places a hand on her shoulder, which helps her relax marginally.

"I'm just saying that it's been made very clear in the past several years that Mr. Stark is in no condition to raise a child and it's not particularly beneficial for the Avatar to live with-" Christine begins and Pepper's grip on Parker's shoulder tightens just before Parker shrugs it off.

"You know what's not _beneficial_ for the Avatar?" she snaps. "Being told all my life I'm a freak because I can do things other people can't. Being moved around from foster home to foster home for thirteen years because of what I could do. Never having a real home until a few months ago." Christine stares at her, gaping like a fish. "I'm happier than I've ever been in my life since Tony adopted me. And anyone who thinks they've got a right to pass judgment on my life or my dad's ought to mind their own business." She steps back from the microphone as the room erupts into noise again. "I'm done," she says quietly to Pepper. "I'm sorry. I don't wanna talk to them if they're all gonna be like her."

"It's okay," Pepper answers and Parker's relieved to see that she's smiling a little proudly. "You did well. Happy's got the car waiting outside, go out backstage. I'll take care of them."

"Thanks." Parker hurries offstage and out the back door, where Happy is leaning on the car door.

"Well, that was fast, I wasn't expecting you for another half hour," he points out as he opens the backseat door for her. She slides inside, exhaling a little in relief as he gets into the driver's seat and the car starts moving down the road. "I'm guessing it didn't go well?" he asks, glancing back up at her in the rearview mirror.

"Ugh," she says simply in response, sinking down in her seat as far as she can with a seatbelt on and burying her face into her hands.

He snorts with laughter. "Relax. No matter what you said, I can guarantee the boss has said way worse."

"Did he ever tell an entire room of reporters to shut up?" she mutters into her hands and he hums consideringly.

"At some point, probably." She peeks up at the rearview mirror to find him giving her a sympathetic smile. "It'll be fine. Ms. Potts can handle the press."

"I hope so." Parker tilts her head back against the seat and shuts her eyes, half-hoping she'll open them to find that the conference had never happened.

* * *

Instead, the next time she opens her eyes, the car's come to a stop outside the mansion and Happy's gently nudging her shoulder.

"I'd've let you sleep a little longer, but I've gotta head back and pick up Ms. Potts," he says apologetically as she rubs her eyes.

"It's okay. Sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep." She unbuckles her seatbelt and climbs out of the car. "Thanks for the ride home."

"Anytime, Park." He squeezes her shoulder before getting back into the driver's seat. Parker slips inside the mansion, watching the car disappear around the corner from the front window before toeing off her shoes and heading to the living room.

As she rounds the corner, she hears her own voice snapping, "-anyone who thinks they've got a right to pass judgment on my life or my dad's ought to mind their own business." A sound like a breath being sucked in sharply follows that and she enters the living room to find the television playing a news program. An anchor is speaking and Parker's face is frozen mid-word in a small frame in the top-right corner of the screen.

Tony is sitting on the couch, staring at the television as if he's not really seeing it, and Parker feels her stomach sink with dread at the look on his face. "Did I mess it up?" she asks quietly and he starts at the sound of her voice, quickly muting the television and spinning around to face her as he plasters a smile on his face.

"What? No, of course not. You did great."

"Then why did you look like I kicked DUM-E when I walked in?" she points out and he rolls his eyes.

"You're reading too much into it. You did fine, the press conference went well. See? Pepper handled it after you left." He gestures to the television, where Pepper is now speaking quickly with a scowl on her face.

"She doesn't look that happy about it, either," Parker says dryly and Tony wrinkles his nose as he looks at the screen again.

"Well, that's because she doesn't have much patience for idiots like Christine Everhart. Especially considering she upset you."

"I was wondering if you two had some kind of history with her, she seemed bitter," Parker muses as she sits on the couch and Tony snorts a little as he relaxes back onto the couch beside her.

"Mainly just me who has history with her, but yeah, I'm not surprised she got under your skin." He squeezes her knee reassuringly. "You did just fine, Park, relax." He cracks a grin. "My favorite part was when somebody in the audience called you adorable."

Parker groans as she drops her head into her hands. "It got caught on video? I was hoping the microphones wouldn't pick it up."

"The clip is already trending on YouTube," JARVIS chimes in. "The video is aptly titled, 'The new Avatar is hashtag relatable.' I've saved a copy for future embarrassment purposes."

"Destroy it, please," Parker requests, wondering why exactly Tony gave JARVIS the option to save videos for future embarrassment purposes.

"Ignore her, keep it forever," Tony insists quickly.

"Unfortunately, Miss Parker, Mr. Stark's wishes override yours," JARVIS answers dryly.

"But I said please!" she protests.

"When you build your own AI, you can have them accept manners over the creator's wishes," Tony answers with a chuckle and she elbows him in response, earning a grimace as he rubs his side. "Your elbows are sharp," he complains.

"Why'd you look like I kicked DUM-E when I walked in?" she demands again.

"It's _nothing_ , really." She stares at him pointedly and it only takes a few moments for him to cave. "You've never called me your dad before."

She suddenly feels like he'd punched her in the stomach while wearing one of his Iron Man gauntlets. "Oh. Sorry. I won't do it again." She shuffles off the couch to head upstairs, feeling the corners of her eyes burn.

When she's halfway up the stairs, Tony seems to piece together what had just happened and calls hurriedly after her, "Wait, that's not what I meant!" She ignores him, climbing the rest of the stairs and slipping into her room before locking the door behind herself.

"Shall I inform Mr. Stark to give you some space?" JARVIS offers as she curls up in her window-seat, drawing her knees to her chest.

"Yes, please," she mumbles, her voice cracking as hot tears roll down her cheeks. She swipes at her cheeks half-heartedly, adding, "Turn off for a little while in my room, too."

"As you wish," JARVIS answers and she hears the quiet hum that's usually the sign of him active in her room die down until it's completely silent. She buries her face into her hands, allowing her tears to fall freely until her eyes hurt too much for tears to form in them anymore.

She half-wishes she hadn't asked JARVIS to leave, because now she feels too isolated and all she wants to do is go down to the beach to practice her bending, but to do that, she would have to pass Tony. She peers down from the window to the sand below, wondering if she can somehow jump down without breaking every bone in her legs. The sand can cushion her fall, as can a burst of air if she times it right. She pushes open the window and swings one leg out before she decides not to risk it and yanks it back inside, shutting the window again.

Getting to her feet, she crosses the room to pick out one of the journals in the box under her bed, flipping through it until she finds the diagram she's looking for. Maybe she can at least test her ability to bend from a distance.

She settles back in by the window again, focusing on the waves breaking on the shore below and holding her hand out to try and call them. The water splashes upwards a little half-heartedly, but then settles back down. Exhaling a little impatiently, she pulls the water to her again with a flick of her wrist and the nearest wave floats upwards away from the sand before dropping again with a sharp slap against the ground that she can hear even through the thick glass window.

Snapping the journal shut, she gets to her feet and tugs her hand back as hard as she can, clenching her fist. Before she knows it, the glass shatters and something long and sharp flies towards her. She screams and drops to the ground so that it flies over her head. When she dares to look up again, she finds a dangerously sharp-looking icicle embedded in the wall right where her head had been moments earlier.

The lock disengaging with a quiet click is all the warning she gets before the door slams open and Tony rushes in, a gauntlet covering his hand as he raises it in preparation to fire. Parker finds herself scrambling away from him before she can stop herself, realizing how awful it looks with an icicle embedded in the wall and her window smashed.

"I'm sorry," she blurts out hurriedly. "I didn't mean to, I was just trying to practice, I didn't know it'd turn into ice and break the window, I'm sorry, I don't know what happened."

Slowly, Tony lowers his gauntlet and she sees how pale he is, the dark circles under his eyes standing out. "No one's attacking you?" he asks, sounding just as shaken as she does, and she feels like she's been hit over the head by a ton of bricks as she shakes her head. Exhaling shakily, he tears off the gauntlet and drops it before collapsing to his knees and pulling her against his chest. For a terrifyingly confusing moment, she thinks he's punishing her for breaking the window by crushing her.

"I'm sorry," she repeats, her voice breaking as she squirms to try and push him away before he can tighten his hold on her. "I didn't mean to break the window-"

"Forget the goddamn window," Tony says roughly and she flinches, but there's no anger in his voice as he hauls her closer until she's wrapped up properly in his arms, clutching her like a lifeline. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm okay," she reassures him, realizing at last that he isn't angry at her, and he presses his face into her hair as he releases a slow, shaky breath.

"Okay. Good." He pats her back gently before pulling away, swiping quickly at his eyes, but not before Parker sees how red and puffy they are. "And you said you didn't need a suit," he tries to joke, but Parker feels like there's a hollow pit in her stomach as she looks up at the half-melted icicle still in the wall.

"I've never made ice before," she says quietly. "And I haven't had an incident like that in a long time." If someone else had been standing there instead of her and hadn't ducked in time...

The thought of it makes her stomach turn as she huddles in against Tony's chest again, ignoring how the arc reactor's edge presses uncomfortably against her shoulder, and he slips his arms back around her instinctively.

"It's okay. We'll talk to Coulson about it." It doesn't make her feel much better, but the quiet hum of the arc reactor against her ear helps her relax slowly.

"How'd you get in, anyway?" she asks after a few moments of silence. "I locked the door."

"JARVIS unlocked it. Emergency protocol allows him to access any lock in the house," Tony answers simply.

"But I asked him to turn off," she points out, frowning.

"I'm sorry, Miss Parker, but my emergency protocol overrode your request and gave me access to your room," JARVIS answers apologetically from overhead. "I can turn off again now if you'd like."

She shakes her head before realizing JARVIS probably can't see her. "No, that's okay."

"Might I suggest then that you both get off the floor covered in broken glass?" JARVIS offers dryly.

Tony glances around them before muttering a swearword and then glancing sharply at Parker. "Don't repeat that." She finally cracks a smile as he ushers her to her feet and out of the room. "I'll take care of the glass, you go wait downstairs in the living room."

"But I caused the mess, I should clean it," she insists and he waves it off.

"I'm not about to make you handle broken glass, now go wait downstairs. I'll take care of it." She reluctantly obeys, deciding not to push her luck in case he decides to be angry with her for breaking the window.

Pepper enters the mansion just as Parker sits down on the living room couch, looking exhausted and annoyed as she drops her briefcase by the couch. "God, I can't stand that woman," she mutters.

"Did I really screw it up? Answering her question?" Parker asks tentatively and Pepper huffs a chuckle.

"No, of course not. You gave her the slap in the face she deserved." She sinks down onto the couch, frowning as she tilts her head up towards the ceiling. "Is that a vacuum?" Parker belatedly realizes she can hear the sound of a vacuum moving overhead.

"Oh. Yeah, Tony's probably vacuuming." She tries to play it off as something that happens regularly.

"Why exactly is Tony being allowed to handle a vacuum?" Pepper raises an eyebrow and grins a little, teasing, "We talked about this, Park, you're responsible for making sure he doesn't handle house appliances."

Parker ducks her head, embarrassed. "He, um, may or may not be cleaning up the window I broke."

When she looks up again, Pepper's smile is gone and an alarmed, worried expression is on her face instead. "You broke a window?" she repeats slowly.

"I didn't mean to," Parker insists quickly. "I was just practicing bending and then this icicle just came out of nowhere through the window and-"

"An _icicle_?!" Pepper's voice rises a little, a note of hysteria in it.

"It's _fine_ , Pepper," Tony calls as he comes down the stairs, hauling a bag of broken glass with him. Parker drops her gaze again, too embarrassed to look at the damage she's done. "She's fine, the house is fine. We just need to replace that window and fix the wall where the icicle got embedded." He disappears into the garage to throw out the bag.

"Embedded," Pepper echoes faintly, closing her eyes as she tilts her head against the back of the couch. "An icicle embedded in the wall." Parker bites her lip before inching a little closer to press against Pepper's side.

"I'm sorry," she offers quietly. "I didn't mean to."

Pepper opens her eyes quickly, managing a soft smile. "Oh, hey, no. It's okay, accidents happen." She slides her arm around Parker's shoulders to pull her close and Parker sinks into the warm embrace readily.

"Oh, sure, when _she_ breaks a window, it's all 'accidents happen,' but when I do it, I'm a 'menace to society,'" Tony grumbles as he reenters the living room, sinking down on Parker's other side on the couch. "Gimme my kid." Pepper relinquishes her hold on Parker with a soft chuckle so that Tony can tug her into his side instead.

"Your kid?" she says suddenly as his words sink in, looking back up at him tentatively, and he cracks a tiny smile back at her, an apology behind it.

"Well, you are, aren't you?" A little bubble of happiness swells in her chest as she nods, curling back into his side.

"Yeah. I am."

* * *

 **Why is it that my writer's block clears up only when I'm supposed to be studying for an exam? lololol**

 **This is a really difficult semester for me, so please bear with me while I try to get out chapters. I know they're short, but if I made them any longer, it'd take literal years to update. It's happened. I've tried.**

 **Hope you enjoy and I'll try to get into the next Marvel movie ASAP (expect time jumps!).**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

* * *

As the weeks pass and summer turns into fall and then almost immediately transitions into winter, Parker's training intensifies following her incident. She barely has time for schoolwork or her programming practice, but finds herself either holed up in the basement gyms of SHIELD's headquarters or out on the beach by the mansion practicing her bending.

The media is mysteriously silent after Parker's disastrous press conference, although she has a feeling that's more to do with Pepper's eerily professional shutdown of any tabloid articles or reporters looking to frame Parker in a negative light. However, now she has to contend with politics far above her head, as she is invited to an formal gathering of the United Nations to introduce herself to as many world leaders as possible.

Phil keeps a list of countries and their leaders on hand every time he sees her and quizzes her on each of them so that she remembers each one, but even with her relatively decent memory, there are too many names to keep track of.

"Come on, Park, I know you know the king of Wakanda's name," Phil sighs as Parker wracks her brain, one hand tangling in her hair and tugging on a strand absently as she thinks.

"It's got an apostrophe in it?" she offers plaintively and Phil takes pity on her.

"King T'Chaka," he informs her and she mentally repeats it a few times. "You'll want to remember him most, even though Wakanda's one of the smallest of the attending countries. He's bringing his son T'Challa to the event as part of his political training, so you'll have another teenager to hang around when you're not being forced to socialize."

Pepper delights in taking Parker shopping for her first evening dress a few weeks before the gala and Parker only barely winces at the price tags, a little more used to how frivolously Tony spends his money than she had been when she had first started living with him. She's forced to hold still as a tailor measures her in a bottle-green long-sleeved dress Pepper chooses for her, sticking pins in the fabric and making notes on a little notepad for alterations.

"Well, at least you behave better than Mr. Stark when he gets his fittings done," he mutters as he puts his things away once he's done, sticking his pencil behind his ear, and Pepper bites her lip to stifle a laugh.

"Just for that, I'll be sure to pencil him in for you later this week, Lorenzo," she informs the tailor as she ushers Parker off the podium.

"Why, what event is he going to?" Parker asks as she makes her way to the fitting room to change back into her jeans and hoodie.

"The same one as you," Pepper points out dryly and Parker stands on her toes so that Pepper can see her bewildered expression over the fitting room door. "You didn't think you were going alone, did you?" Pepper asks, raising her eyebrows in surprise.

"Honestly, kind of," Parker admits as she sinks back down again so that she can finish changing. "I guess I just thought I'd be thrown headfirst into this publicity stuff after the press conference." She exits the dressing room and hands off the dress to Lorenzo, who disappears into the back to start working on the alterations.

"Well, originally, we were planning to let you go on your own," Pepper explains as she ushers Parker out of the store. "But Tony suggested that it might be overwhelming for you to meet so many people at once. Not because you can't handle it!" she hurries to add as Parker opens her mouth indignantly to protest. "You did great at the press conference, we know you can handle people. He just knows what it's like to be in the spotlight from a young age. He means well."

" _Fine_ ," Parker huffs, making a show of sighing dramatically as she collapses into the backseat of the waiting car and Pepper rolls her eyes fondly as she slides into the seat beside Parker and Happy begins driving them home.

* * *

"You look _fine_ ," Tony insists, batting Parker's hands away as she fiddles with the sleeves of her dress. "Stop fidgeting, you don't want to look nervous in front of these people."

"Sorry." She does her best to keep her hands still in her lap, but finds herself picking at the skin on her fingertips anxiously instead.

They had flown into New York City that afternoon and are on their way to the banquet hall where the gala is being held. A light layer of snow coats the sidewalks and streets, which normally would fascinate Parker, but she's so focused on repeating the names of world leaders mentally and figuring out what to say to them that she can't bring herself to appreciate seeing snow for the first time in real life.

"Hey." Tony presses his hand over both of hers, covering them. "You're going to do fine. Stop overthinking things."

"But I _always_ overthink things," she protests.

"I know, it's why I worry sometimes that we might actually be related somehow," he deadpans before squeezing her hands gently. "You've been preparing a long time for tonight. You've got this. And if you get overwhelmed, just find me and stick by me. Okay?"

She swallows, nodding. "Okay."

In the end, the gala isn't all that bad. Most people just shake her hand briefly and introduce themselves before moving on, and Tony's presence, just a few feet away at all times, helps keep her nerves at bay. To her immense relief, she doesn't forget anyone's names and is especially reassured when she remembers the names of King T'Chaka and his seventeen-year-old son, T'Challa, as they approach her an hour after the gala begins.

"My sister Shuri would have loved to come, too," T'Challa says as he shakes Parker's hand firmly. "She has been jealous that I get to meet you for weeks now."

"That's because your sister wants to study Parker's bending," T'Chaka reminds his son with a chuckle, patting his shoulder, and T'Challa shrugs modestly.

"If anyone can figure out how it works, it would be Shuri."

"Hey, if she can figure it out and teach me, more power to her," Parker jokes, earning identical broad grins from both of them.

"You could visit sometime and meet her in person," T'Chaka offers, "Not many outsiders come to Wakanda, but the Avatar has always been welcome in our country."

"I'd like that," Parker agrees, not sure if she actually wants to visit a tiny country filled with nothing but African savannah and farmlands, but wanting to remain polite.

"We'll work something out when Parker's a little older," Tony says as he appears behind Parker, his hand resting on her shoulder. "I don't feel comfortable letting her travel on her own just yet."

"Of course, that is understandable," T'Chaka agrees, although T'Challa looks a little disappointed.

"I'd love to show you my country one day," he tells Parker earnestly and she gives him a small smile in return.

"I can't wait to see it," she reassures him before letting Tony steer her away. "They seem nicer than a lot of people I met tonight," she points out under her breath so that only he can hear. "I don't see why I can't visit them sometime."

"You're still only thirteen. I wasn't kidding when I said I don't feel comfortable sending you halfway across the world on your own," Tony says with a small shrug, swiping a flute of champagne and a glass of sparkling cider from a passing waiter. "When you're older, we'll talk about it."

She huffs a little, accepting the offered sparkling cider to take a sip. "Dad, you went to _college_ when you were thirteen."

"That's different," Tony dismisses, although she sees him turn a little pink as he downs the champagne. He's still easily flustered whenever she calls him "Dad," especially in public, but he's slowly getting used to it, to Parker's relief.

* * *

Before Parker knows it, over a year flies by, a result of the intense training and schooling she puts herself through. She completes her tenth-grade curriculum painfully slowly, taking her final exams just after her fifteenth birthday, and enrolls in some online courses to begin teaching herself basic programming languages at her own pace in the meantime. Tony and Phil make it no secret how proud they are of her progress, despite how slow it is, and the praise never fails to make the bubble of happiness in Parker's chest swell. She can't remember ever feeling like she belonged somewhere more - and then everything changes when she walks into the mansion's gym one day to find Natasha Romanoff climbing out of the boxing ring and leaving behind a wheezing Happy, who's sprawled on the floor.

She gapes at the scene, wondering why exactly Natasha had come to her house - she usually meets Natasha at SHIELD headquarters to train - and then Tony says cheerfully from where he's standing on the sidelines next to a scowling Pepper, "Looks like a TKO to me!"

"What," Parker says, bewildered, and Natasha looks sharply at her. It's then that Parker realizes that Natasha is dressed in a white blouse and dark pencil skirt, her hair loose and falling over her shoulders in dark red waves. It finally hits Parker that she's there undercover, although for what reason, she still doesn't know.

"Park, this is Pepper's new secretary, Natalie Rushman," Tony says, waving her over.

" _Natalie_ ," Parker repeats skeptically as she makes her way over to them and Natasha narrows her eyes in a subtle glare. "Nice to meet you," Parker amends her tone quickly, shaking her hand, and Natasha relaxes marginally.

"It's good to meet you, too." She turns to Tony. "I need your impression."

Tony makes a show of thinking. "You have a quiet reserve. An old soul, I guess."

Natasha purses her lips. "I mean your fingerprint." She holds out a tablet that she seems to have whipped out from nowhere.

"Right." Tony swipes his thumb over the tablet.

"Will that be all, Mr. Stark?"

"No," Tony says.

"Yes, that will be all, Ms. Rushman," Pepper says at the same time, standing on Tony's foot pointedly. "Thank you." Natasha heads for the door, making eye contact briefly with Parker, and Parker nods as subtly as she can back to her. Natasha cracks a tiny smile at last before slipping out of the gym, leaving Parker to turn back to Tony and Pepper.

"Why does Pepper need a secretary?" she asks, bewildered.

"Well, every CEO needs a secretary," Tony says with a shrug and Parker frowns.

"CEO?"

"I quit being Tony's secretary and he decided to reinstate me in his place," Pepper clarifies with a long-suffering sigh.

"I'm confused." Parker turns to Tony. "If you're not the CEO, what do you plan to do?"

Tony shrugs mildly. "Keep inventing, work on my suits. Gives me more time to research if I'm not stuck doing office work." He doesn't quite meet her eyes, though, and she has the nagging feeling that something's wrong.

"Is everything okay?"

"Sure." Tony looks up at her again, startled. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Okay." Parker chews her lip, but decides to let the subject drop. "Well, I'm gonna head down to the beach to practice my firebending."

"Be safe," Pepper calls after her as she leaves.

Parker's relieved to find Natasha waiting outside the mansion once she walks out the front door. "What're you doing here?" she demands and Natasha rolls her eyes.

"Fury wants me to monitor Stark for a little while. Relax, kid, it's nothing personal." She squeezes Parker's shoulder briefly. "Just don't do anything to give me away until this is over."

"Why does Fury want to monitor Tony?" Parker shrugs Natasha's hand off her shoulder, frowning, and Natasha sighs heavily.

"Look, it's got nothing to do with you, so don't worry about it. Keep your head down, and I'll hopefully be out of your hair in just a couple weeks. Okay?"

"Does this have to do with him resigning as CEO?" Parker asks and Natasha chews her lip.

"I can't say anything. I'm sorry." She looks sincerely apologetic, which makes Parker's anger fade just a little.

"Okay. Just...if something's wrong, will you at least tell me?"

Natasha bites her lip again. "I'll do my best," she promises, which is all Parker knows to expect from her.

"Yeah, okay." She heads for the beach, intent on getting out her pent-up frustration with some firebending practice. Something about the way the flames erupt around her clenched fists always seems to soothe her temper.

"And remember, it's Natalie while I'm here," Natasha calls after her and Parker waves over her shoulder to acknowledge it.

* * *

"Something's going on here that nobody's telling me," Parker blurts out in frustration as she hangs upside-down off Phil's couch and he peers down at her from behind the couch, vaguely amused.

"Like what?"

"Well, the reason that I'm here instead of at home, for one," she points out.

"You know it's Stark's birthday party tonight. And there's going to be alcohol and he doesn't want you around that. Neither do I, for that matter."

"I could've just stayed in my room," she mutters sullenly.

"Look, he had a reason for having me watch you tonight." Phil looks suddenly uncomfortable, though, and Parker sits up.

"So you know why he's been acting weird."

"I didn't say that." Phil purposely avoids meeting her eyes. "Stark's eccentric, you know that."

"I've been living with him for two years now, I know he is," she points out. "But driving a race car in Monaco and resigning as CEO of his own company and throwing crazy house parties all of a sudden? That's not normal, even for him."

Phil chews his lip. "I just think it's for him to tell you what's going on, not me." He pointedly turns away from her to head into the kitchen. "How about spaghetti for dinner?" he changes the subject, his voice forcibly cheerful.

"Yeah, okay." Parker lays back down on the couch, her stomach turning at just the thought of eating anything due to her nerves, but not wanting to turn down Phil's cooking, either. "Even Natasha gets to be there," she mumbles irritably after a moment.

"Agent Romanoff's on a surveillance mission and you know that," Phil reminds her.

"I could light your couch on fire if you don't tell me what's going on, you know," she threatens.

"And you'd feel guilty about it for the rest of your life if you do." She sits up again to find Phil smiling wryly at her over the divider between the living room and the kitchen. "Don't forget, Park, I've known you all your life."

"Ugh," she complains, flopping back down again and earning a laugh from him as he goes back to retrieving ingredients from the cupboards. She reaches for the remote on the coffee table, flipping the television on with the intent of channel-surfing to keep her mind off her worry for Tony, and then promptly drops the remote when she recognizes the destroyed mansion on the screen.

"Oh, no," Phil says when he sees what she's looking at.

"I should go," Parker says as she scrambles off the couch, but Phil hurries out of the kitchen to grab her wrist.

"Park, there's nothing you can do. The situation's already handled."

"But-" she tries to protest as she glances back at the screen to see the news camera focusing now on two Iron Man suits bursting through the walls of the house - one red and gold and the other silver - and pummeling each other to the ground. The silver suit shakes off the red and gold one, the helmet briefly flipping up to reveal a familiar face - Rhodey, Tony's friend that Parker's only met a handful of times - before taking off into the air. The red and gold suit - Tony - climbs to his feet and wavers for a moment before taking off in the other direction.

"I know what it looks like," Phil insists. "Fury's got it handled, though. He's going to find Stark in the morning."

"I wanna go, too," Parker says immediately. "I need to know what's happening."

Phil shakes his head. "We'll go over to the mansion tomorrow once Fury debriefs him and brings him back. For now, you need to eat your dinner and get some sleep."

"How am I supposed to do any of that when _this_ is going on?!" Parker gestures frantically at the screen.

Phil lets go of her wrist to grasp her shoulders. "I know you're worried, but hopefully when I take you home tomorrow, Stark will explain everything to you."

"Hopefully," Parker echoes skeptically. "That pretty much means you don't think he will."

"Leave it until tomorrow." Phil lets go of her shoulders to head back into the kitchen. Parker debates briefly whether to just open the front door and make a run for it, but grudgingly decides to head back to the couch.

* * *

Parker feels a little twinge of satisfaction the moment she rounds the corner of the destroyed mansion and Tony turns white as a sheet where he's sitting at a table with Nick Fury.

"Hey, Park," he tries for a cheerful tone, plastering a smile on his face. "Did you have fun staying over at Coulson's place?"

"Sure, up until I turned the news on," she deadpans, crossing her arms.

"Told you you should've said something to her sooner, Stark," Natasha says and it's then that Parker notices her leaning on the undamaged section of wall near him, dressed in her usual SHIELD uniform.

"You broke your cover?" she asks and Tony gapes at her.

"Wait, you knew about her?" He gestures at Natasha.

"Who do you think Parker trains with at SHIELD?" Natasha says with a smirk and Tony slouches in his chair, scowling.

"So _everybody_ knew except me?"

"Pepper and Happy didn't," Parker offers, but then remembers that she's still angry at him. "What the hell happened?"

Tony grimaces. "So the party got a little out of hand."

"A little out of hand," Parker echoes dryly and makes a show of looking around the damaged walls and shattered glass surrounding them before looking back at Tony and raising an eyebrow pointedly.

He avoids meeting her eyes. "Yep. Sorry about that. Your room's still intact, I checked."

"I don't care about my room, I care about _you_ ," Parker retorts sharply, making him wince slightly and drop his gaze to his knees.

"I've told you what needs to be done, Stark," Fury says, turning their collective attention to him as he gets to his feet. Parker's only met him a few times, but he still makes her slightly nervous. "Parker, how do you feel about your first official mission?"

"My what," Parker says dumbly, startled that he's actually addressing her, and he cracks a wry smile.

"Keep an eye on him." He jabs a thumb in Tony's direction and claps Parker's shoulder as he passes her.

"That's a stupid first mission!" Parker protests after him and Natasha snorts with amusement as she pushes herself off the wall.

"We've disabled all communication," she informs Tony. "No contact with the outside world." She casts a glance at Parker. "And tell her already, she deserves to know," she adds sharply to Tony before squeezing Parker's shoulder on her way out.

"Tell me _what_?" Parker asks plaintively.

Tony purposely avoids answering her and focuses on Phil behind her instead. "So how do I convince you to make a Starbucks run?"

"I'm not here for that. I've been authorized by Director Fury to use any means necessary to keep you on premises. If you attempt to leave or play any games, I will tase you and watch _Supernanny_ while you drool into the carpet," Phil says pleasantly.

"Phil!" Parker says, horrified, and he shrugs mildly at her.

"Hey, I've got orders."

"Yeah, whatever, I got it," Tony grumbles, pushing himself to his feet and making his way into the house through the gaping hole in the wall. He picks his way past debris and heads down the stairs as Parker follows him, clambering over chunks of plaster and concrete on her way down to the lab.

"What're you hiding from me?" she demands as Tony heads for his work table, which is now scattered with dust and debris, and reaches into a drawer to pull out a thin silver device. He presses his thumb to it, wincing a little as it pricks his finger, and studies the display on the little screen before exhaling heavily and shoving the device over for Parker to read. "60% toxicity?" she reads the display out loud.

"Would be higher if 'Agent Romanoff' hadn't hit me with some lithium dioxide," Tony says, putting air-quotes around Natasha's name. "It temporarily abates the symptoms of, uh...palladium poisoning." He keeps his eyes firmly fixed away from her.

"Poisoning?" she echoes slowly as it sinks in. "You're dying?" Something in her chest tightens painfully.

"Parker-" he begins wearily.

"Were you ever planning to tell me that your arc reactor was killing you?" she demands angrily.

"I didn't want you to worry!" he protests.

"Because I wasn't worried earlier," she points out sarcastically. "When you were doing stupid stunts like jumping out of the plane at the Expo a couple weeks ago, or driving the race car in Monaco, or trashing the house last night. When were you going to let me find out, at your funeral?"

"Look, I get it." Tony takes a tentative step towards her and she sees suddenly just how shaky his movements are. "I should've told you earlier. I'm sorry. I didn't want to worry you until I found a cure for it."

"Will it work at this stage of toxicity?" Parker drops her gaze away from him, unable to look at him now that she's finally noticed just how pale he is.

"It'll work," he says, although he doesn't sound convinced. "I've got some of my dad's old research here, I'll find something."

"Yeah. Okay." She shuffles on the spot, kicking at a stray piece of rubble at her feet to avoid meeting his eyes. "What can I do to help?" Her voice cracks on the last word, giving away just how upset she is even though she hadn't wanted Tony to see it.

He's silent for a moment, but then moves forward to wrap his arms around her tightly. She does her best not to move, but then he ducks his head to press his cheek against the top of her head and the lump in her throat tightens until she's choking on a sob. Tony's grip on her tightens protectively and she buries her face into his chest, her forehead pressing into the edge of the arc reactor.

"I'll fix this," he promises her quietly. "It's going to be okay, Park, I promise."

"You said you were trying to find a cure," she says in response, not liking the way her voice wobbles. "But it just feels like all you've been doing is preparing to die." Tony doesn't answer, and Parker finally lets the tears in her eyes fall against the front of his shirt.

* * *

"There's no new blueprints here on the arc reactor," Parker complains as they sift through the box, an old video of Howard Stark playing on the holographic screen behind them. "How are we supposed to find a replacement for the palladium core if there's nothing you haven't seen before?"

"Fury said my dad hid something in here for me to find," Tony explains as he grabs a journal to rifle through it absently. "Maybe he found a new replacement material."

"But you said you tried every other element in existence," Parker points, frowning as she grabs a book of her own to look through.

"Yeah." Tony grimaces as he keeps looking through the book.

"So from all of us at Stark Industries, I would like to personally - Tony, what are you doing back there?" Parker looks up at the screen to find Howard moving around the model of the Stark Expo to retrieve a younger Tony, who looks to be just barely out of his toddler years. "What is that?" He snatches away the model building Tony had picked up and the little boy's lip quivers, as if he's about to cry. "Where's your mother? Maria?" he calls even as he shoos Tony away. "Go on. Go, go, go." An assistant hurries into the frame, scooping Tony up and carrying him off-screen.

"You were a cute kid," Parker says when she notices the real Tony watching the screen, too, and he cracks a grin.

"Yeah, I know I was." She rolls her eyes and kicks at his ankle lightly. "Shame my dad didn't think so."

They watch as the video cuts to another footage reel of Howard discussing the Stark Expo for a few more seconds before Tony returns to rifling through the box of Howard's research. Parker keeps glancing between the journal in her hands and the screen, trying to wrap her head around how Howard Stark could have ever treated his son so harshly.

"He wasn't the affectionate type." She starts slightly, glancing back at Tony to find him watching her with a small, wry smile. "Never did anything to prove he cared." He drops his gaze away from her, chewing his lip. "When he died, and I was supposed to look after you, I just...I couldn't. I didn't want to be the dad he was to me."

Parker frowns. "But you're not. You're a great dad."

Tony blinks back at her, taken aback, before flushing slightly and fiddling with the book in his hands self-consciously. "Thanks." He flips through the journal before exhaling quietly and dropping it back into the box. "Nothing."

"I got nothing, too." Parker pitches her own journal into the box, where it lands neatly on top of the pile.

"Two points," Tony deadpans.

"Tony." Both of them look up at the screen sharply, expecting to see Howard chastising a younger Tony again, but Howard is staring directly at the camera this time. "You're too young to understand this right now, so I thought I would put it on film for you. I built this for you. And someday, you'll realise that it represents a whole lot more than just people's inventions. It represents my life's work. This is the key to the future. I'm limited by the technology of my time, but one day you'll figure this out. And when you do, you will change the world." He smiles faintly. "What is and always will be my greatest creation is you." The video finally ends and Parker looks at Tony to find that his eyes are suspiciously bright and shiny.

"I have to go." He sets the box aside and gets to his feet. "You keep looking through the box, I need to talk to Pepper."

"Isn't she at work?" Parker points out. "And Phil said he'd tase you if you stepped off the property."

"I'll be fine. Stay here, keep looking." Tony hesitates before closing the space between them to wrap his arms around her shoulders. "I'll be back soon."

Parker leans heavily into his embrace, shutting her eyes briefly. "Yeah. Okay, Dad." Once Tony disappears up the stairs, she leans back into her chair, scrubbing at her eyes until they stop stinging. "JARVIS, can you play back that message from Howard?" she requests and JARVIS queues up the video again. She watches through the message again, chewing her lip. "'I built this for you,'" she repeats under her breath, studying the frozen image of Howard in front of the model of the Stark Expo before it finally clicks. "JARVIS, can you get a scan of that model?"

"Unfortunately, Miss Parker, I would need a full view of the model rather than a sideways view captured from the video frames," JARVIS admits apologetically and Parker slumps back into her seat, her one lead gone.

Luckily, Tony returns within the hour, carrying the exact model Parker had been looking for.

"Just what I needed!" She jumps up from her seat and he looks alarmed as she grabs it from him, hauling it onto the desk. "J, can you scan it now?"

"You already figured it out, huh? Here I thought I was being clever," Tony says dryly as JARVIS begins to scan the model.

"1974 model of the Stark Expo complete, Miss Parker," the AI supplies as a blue overlay surrounds the physical model and she pulls the hologram into the air, examining it curiously.

"He said he'd built it for you," she explains to Tony as she tilts the model with a swipe of her hand, sitting back down. "I had a feeling he meant it literally."

"So did I," Tony admits. "I had this model sitting in my office - well, Pepper's office now," he amends. "And luckily, she hadn't thrown it away yet." He snaps his fingers and the model shifts sideways. "How many buildings are in this thing, JARVIS?"

"Shall I include the Belgian waffle stands?" JARVIS offers and Tony huffs a little.

"That was rhetorical, just show me." JARVIS obediently highlights the buildings and Tony sits back in his chair, studying the image. "What's that remind you of, Park?"

"An atom?" Parker guesses, squinting slightly to try and see it.

"And the nucleus would be…" Tony pokes at the center and JARVIS focuses on it. "Highlight the unisphere, lose the footpaths." He waves away the excess details.

"What're you doing?" Parker asks, trying to wrap her head around what she's looking at.

"Discovering - correction, _rediscovering_ a new element." Tony flicks away some landscaping details like trees and shrubbery. "Lose the parking lots, entrances, pathways. Structure the protons and the neutrons using the pavilions as a framework." As JARVIS forms a nucleus, Tony expands it until it surrounds them with little pinpricks of blue light. "Dead for twenty years and still taking me to school. Thanks, Dad," he says with a wry laugh, studying the blueprint before shrinking it down into a compact ball again.

"This is it?" Parker asks, stunned as she stares at the little ball of light in Tony's hand. "This is the new element your dad found?"

"It should serve as a viable replacement for palladium," JARVIS says and Parker feels a twinge of hope settle in her chest. "It is, however, impossible to synthesize."

Tony doesn't look discouraged, climbing to his feet. "We're back in hardware mode. Park, how good has your earthbending gotten?"

"Uh, it's okay, I guess?" She shrugs and he ushers her to her feet.

"Just as long as you can break down the walls I tell you to."

* * *

"Heard you broke the perimeter," Phil says disapprovingly as he comes down the stairs just as Parker stamps her foot on the ground, sending a tremor through it to bring a wall crumbling down.

Tony rewards her with a grin before acknowledging Phil, "That was like, three years ago. Where have you been?"

"I was doing stuff," Phil says mulishly.

"Yeah, well, so were we." Tony gestures around them to the scattered pipes and wiring they were working with. "And it worked. So are you going to let us work or not?"

Phil's distracted by something sticking out of one of the boxes Tony had brought back from his office, lifting out a metal circle. "What's this doing here?"

"Is that Cap's shield?" Parker's distracted from her work, too, coming over to take it from Phil and slipping the straps over her forearm. It's heavy, but she still attempts to hold it upright the way she's seen Captain America hold it in her history textbook, standing up straighter and putting on a deeper voice, "Truth, liberty, and justice!"

"It's just a replica," Phil tells her, grinning at her impression.

"And it's exactly what I need," Tony adds, waving her over. "Bring it here."

"Aww, but I wanna be Captain America," she complains goodnaturedly, but obediently props it into place where Tony instructs her to.

"Maybe focus on being the Avatar first," he teases, tugging on a lock of her hair before glancing at Phil. "What did you come down here for?"

"To give Parker her actual first mission," Phil answers and Parker looks up at him, startled. "We're both being reassigned to New Mexico."

"What? Now?" She glances between him and Tony, bewildered. "But I can't leave now!"

"Sure you can," Tony says easily. "I've got this, Park."

"But-" Parker begins to protest, but Tony reaches up to squeeze her shoulder.

"I've got this," he reassures her again. "You go ahead, I'll check in with you soon. Be safe, keep your phone handy."

"Okay." She hesitates before reaching out to wrap her arms around him tightly, burying her face into his shoulder. "I love you," she mumbles against his shoulder and he freezes for a long moment, but then hugs her back so tightly that all the breath is squeezed out of her.

"You, too." He pulls back and ducks his head away from her, but not before she sees how bright his eyes are. "Go on, get out of here already." He waves at her and she reluctantly makes her way to the stairs to follow Phil out of the lab.

"So what are we being reassigned to New Mexico for?" she asks as she settles into Lola's passenger seat.

"We've got an 084," Phil informs her. When he sees her bewildered expression, he clarifies, "An unknown object. Locals said it looks like some kind of ancient hammer."

"A hammer?" Parker echoes, bewildered, and Phil nods as he starts driving.

"We're mainly just studying it for now, but Fury wants some security just in case. Barton's already down there, and I figure you can pair up with him to keep an eye on it." Parker remembers Clint Barton as Natasha's usual partner on missions; she's met him a few times, but hardly spoken to him.

"Okay," she agrees reluctantly, turning to watch the ruined mansion fade from sight behind her.

"He'll be okay," Phil reassures her. "You can call him when we reach Puente Antiguo tonight." He pauses. "You know, it's funny."

"What is?" Parker turns back around to face him, frowning.

"Nothing, it's just that Puente Antiguo is where you were born." Phil shrugs mildly. "Just thought it was interesting we were going back there."

"It is?" Parker drops her gaze to her knees, trying to wrap her head around it. "Do...do you think they'd still have records on me? Like, birth records?"

Phil remains silent for a long moment. "Park, I don't want you to get your hopes up," he says eventually. "We looked for your biological parents for a long time. And even if you do find them, what do you want to do with that information?"

"I don't know," she says honestly. "I just want to find out who they are."

Phil sighs heavily. "Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt for you to poke around in your free time. But for now, I wouldn't recommend you think too much about it. You've got an actual mission to worry about."

"Yeah." Parker doesn't feel much like letting the subject go, but settles in for the long drive down to Puente Antiguo.

* * *

 **So, uh. It's been a while since I wrote anything for this fic. And then Endgame happened (no spoilers, but I died inside) and I needed to write more of this fic.**

 **You can tell I have some disdain for Iron Man 2 by the fact that I crammed it into one chapter and played a little fast and loose with the timeline, but I'm sorry about that! I just honestly didn't like the idea of spending too much time on it when Parker wasn't going to be there for the majority of the movie's events (especially considering she's still a minor and Tony definitely wouldn't have taken her to most of the places in the movie). The good news is, you know which movie is coming up next and Parker is definitely playing a decent role in it! :D**

 **I apologize again for the long wait, and I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! (And don't spoil Endgame for those who haven't seen it, seriously.)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

* * *

They drive through the day and part of the night, and Parker falls asleep somewhere near the New Mexico border. Phil shakes her awake at a gas station, passing her a bottle of blue Gatorade that he had picked up inside the convenience store, and she peers over his shoulder to find the night clerk staring in shock back out at them, two men unconscious on the floor inside.

"Do I want to know what happened in there?" she asks around a yawn as she cracks open the Gatorade and takes a swig to soothe her dry throat and Phil cracks a grin.

"No, you really don't." He ruffles her hair affectionately before climbing into the driver's seat and starting the car up again. "We're almost there, just a few miles out now. Do you want to call Stark and check in?"

"Yeah." She fishes her phone out of her pocket, pressing the speed-dial for Tony's number, but it goes straight to voicemail. "Huh." She presses the speed-dial for Pepper's number next, but it goes to voicemail, too. "JARVIS, are you awake?" she requests once she presses the speed-dial for JARVIS last.

"For you, Miss Parker, always. How may I help you?"

"Tony and Pepper aren't picking up their phones, I just wanted to check if everything's okay," she says.

"Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts are currently dealing with a situation at the Stark Expo in New York," JARVIS explains. "Shall I have Mr. Stark call you in a few moments when he's available?"

"Yes, please. Thanks, J." Parker hangs up the phone.

"Everything okay?" Phil frowns at her worriedly.

"Something's going on at the Expo in New York." Parker stares at the phone in her hand, somehow hoping that it would make Tony call her faster.

"I'm sure he's fine," Phil reassures her. "I got a call from Fury earlier while you were asleep, by the way. They've set up a base for us at the site of the 084. You'll be up with Barton in the air to keep an eagle eye out for intruders while we research it."

"You can just call it a magic hammer instead of an 084, you know," Parker points out dryly as she takes another swig of Gatorade and Phil rolls his eyes.

"It's not a 'magic hammer.'"

"It's an ancient hammer that appeared out of nowhere, I feel like that qualifies as a magic hammer," she reminds him, but then is distracted when her phone rings, Tony's name flashing across the screen. She scrambles to answer it as Phil returns his focus to the road. "Dad?"

"Hey, Park. JARVIS said you called." Tony sounds slightly out of breath. "Long story short, Justin Hammer tried to take over the Expo with an army of armored drones and Rhodey's suit was taken over remotely by Ivan Vanko."

"The guy with the electric whips from Monaco?" Parker sits up a little, concerned. "I thought you said he died in a jailbreak attempt."

"Not the case, but he's dead now, anyway." She can hear the grimace in Tony's voice. "I synthesized that new element, by the way, the arc reactor took to it well and my blood toxicity level is going down as we speak."

She sinks back against her seat, immense relief flooding through her. "Good. That's good. Is Pepper okay? She wasn't picking her phone up, either."

"She's fine, she's right here. Pep! Parker's worried about you!" Tony calls and Parker hears Pepper's heels clicking closer on the other end of the line before she takes the phone from Tony.

"Everything's okay, Park, don't worry," she says and just hearing her voice, exhausted as it sounds, makes Parker relax more. Even when they're miles apart, Pepper never fails to make her feel better.

"You're sure?"

"Positive. You go ahead on your mission, stay safe. Check in every now and then, okay?" A twinge of worry enters Pepper's voice.

"She'll be _fine_ , Pep," Tony says from a little further away and presses a kiss against Pepper's cheek loudly enough that it's audible even over the phone.

"Oh my God, are you two kissing? Gross," Parker says and Tony makes an affronted noise.

"Here I thought you'd be happy for us," he complains.

"I am, but I don't wanna think about my parents kissing," Parker protests and Pepper sputters a little, embarrassed. "I'm kidding," Parker reassures them quickly. "I really am happy for you. You're both okay? You're not hurt?"

"We're fine," Tony answers. "I'll get Pepper home safe. Focus on your mission and call when you can."

"I will. Love you, Dad."

"You, too." Tony hangs up and Parker pockets her phone again, feeling a lot more at ease than she had before.

"So the new element worked?" Phil asks and she nods, settling back in her seat.

"Yeah, it sounds like it. I just hope he doesn't name that new element after himself."

Phil wrinkles his nose. "I wouldn't put it past him." He nods ahead. "We're here."

Parker sits up a little to see a vast military-like site set up in front of them, floodlights and white tents set up in the middle of the desert sand and focused on the tiny solitary object in the center. Phil stops the car and Parker gets out, her legs a little wobbly from the long road trip.

"Go ahead and take a look," he offers and she nods, heading into the site. She doesn't even have to flash a badge at any of the agents standing guard, but Phil does as he follows behind her. She supposes that she's so recognizable now that no one would ever ask her for identification.

"This is it?" she asks as she walks out to the center of the crater that the site had been built around, where a large sledgehammer is sticking up handle-first out of the ground. It's ancient-looking just as Phil had said, with runes carved into the metal and strips of leather wrapped around the handle. She reaches out to try and lift it, mostly out of curiosity, but only succeeds in budging it an inch before she gives up altogether, feeling like her arm is on fire from the effort of lifting it. It's as though the hammer is either rooted to the ground or weighs a thousand tons.

"Well, at least you got it to move more than anyone else did," Phil says dryly, watching her massage her arm ruefully before he nudges her away from the hammer gently. "You want to get some more sleep or are you good to stand guard?"

"I'm okay," she reassures him and he pulls out a comms unit, placing it in his ear.

"Barton, I'm sending her up with you," he says into the comms unit and Parker looks up to see a cherry picker positioned high over the site. Clint Barton is sitting inside, one leg swinging lazily and the other drawn up to his chest as he watches over the site with his bow and quiver strapped to his back. She waves up at him and he waves back with a small smile as he gets to his feet. The cherry picker lowers just enough for Parker to climb in and soon enough, she and Barton are high in the air again.

"So how's Nat doing? Still pretending to be a secretary at Stark Industries?" he asks as he sits back down, swinging his leg back between the rails of the cherry picker, and Parker imitates him.

"Pretty sure that cover's blown," she answers. "How long have you and Natasha known each other, anyway?"

Clint frowns thoughtfully. "A while now. I brought her in to join SHIELD." He peers down at the site to keep an eye on the SHIELD agents walking around the hammer below. "Did I imagine it or did you move that hammer?" he asks abruptly.

"Just an inch or so," she answers with a shrug. "Why do you ask?"

"It's just that I watched a truck try to pull that hammer with a cable earlier today and the truck nearly tipped over. The hammer didn't move at all," he explains. "You sure you don't have super-strength on top of shooting fire out of your hands?" He wiggles his fingers to make his point.

"Pretty sure." She reaches up to pull as hard as she can on one of the metal rails of the cherry picker, but it doesn't so much as budge. "See?" He doesn't look convinced, although he cracks a smile all the same.

The rest of the night passes uneventfully and by dawn, Parker is drifting somewhere between the realm of sleep and wakefulness. As the sun starts peeking over the desert horizon, she feels Clint nudge her foot with his own and jolts awake.

"I was up already!" she says defensively and he cracks a grin.

"Sure you were. Our shift's over, I'm taking you down so you can get some more sleep." He presses a button to bring them down to the ground level and Parker hops out into the crater surrounding the hammer. She's tempted to try picking it up again, wondering if she can make it budge any further, but then Phil comes out of the nearest building, waving her over.

"Come on, you look dead on your feet," he says when she's close enough, wrapping his arm around her shoulders to usher her inside. "We've got some bunks set up, you should get some sleep and then you can start looking at the hospital records in town before tonight, if you want."

Parker perks up a little at the thought. "Yeah? Okay." She lets Phil lead her through the SHIELD base, looking around as they walk and taking in the site properly for the first time in the pre-dawn light. "How'd SHIELD set this up so fast, anyway? This place is in the middle of nowhere."

"This town used to be a military research base around fifteen years ago," Phil explains. "We already had the supplies here, all we had to do was set it up again."

"Fifteen years ago?" Parker can't help but think it's not a coincidence that she had also been born fifteen years earlier in the same town, filing it away as one more thing to look into at the hospital later that day.

* * *

"Any luck finding your records?" Clint asks as he peers into the records room of the small town hospital to find Parker sitting on the floor of the secretary's office amongst several boxes full of folders and paper records.

"Nope." She carefully tucks the folder she's holding back into the box. "Turns out there were a bunch of clerical errors and they don't actually have my official birth certificate, but they might have other paperwork like discharge or adoption papers. So now I'm going through every single record of babies born around my birthday to try and find mine. And their organization skills aren't great, to say the least." She looks up at Clint. "You don't have to babysit me, you know, Phil does that plenty."

He huffs with amusement. "Sure, but he's following up on a lead with the magic hammer, so I volunteered to keep an eye on you."

"It's nice that other people are starting to call it the magic hammer, too," Parker muses absently as she goes back to rummaging through the folders. "What kind of lead did he find?"

"The word around town is that there was a big storm in the desert right before the hammer showed up," Clint explains as he joins her, taking a seat on the floor beside her to thumb through some folders, too. "There were a few astrophysicists out there studying some phenomenon during the storm, so Coulson went out with a team to check their findings." He pauses, staring at the file in his hands. "Hey, this might be you." He passes the folder to Parker, who takes it and skims through the basic information on the single page inside.

"Black hair, brown eyes, born on May 23rd, 1995, closed adoption," she reads off, feeling a spark of hope. "This is the closest one I've found so far." She looks at the fields for the parents' names, but they're both empty, which makes her heart sink a little. The rest of the folder is empty where all of the other folders had been full of papers, as if someone had gone in and taken all of the information out.

"Considering how little information there is, that definitely does seem like yours," Clint offers, but then catches the look on her face. "Hey, I'm sorry, kid."

"It's okay." She shuts the folder, stuffing it back into the box he had taken it from. "Not like I knew what I was gonna do with that information when I found it, anyway."

Clint's phone rings and he grabs it, flipping it open. "Barton," he says stiffly, the warmth in his voice gone. "Yeah, we're both in town. Why?" He pauses, listening to the person on the other end for another moment. "Alright. ETA fifteen." He hangs up, shoving his phone into his pocket again. "That was Agent Sitwell, he wants us back on base to watch the magic hammer," he explains with a wry grin. "Coulson and his team confiscated the research from those astrophysicists and are going through it all now."

"They confiscated all their research?" Parker asks, getting to her feet to stretch her arms over her head; she had been sitting on the floor for a while. Her shoulders audibly pop and Clint looks mildly impressed. "Why not just take copies?" she asks once she lowers her arms again.

"If it's as dangerous as we think it might be, we don't want just anybody getting their hands on it." He places a hand on her shoulder, leading her out of the hospital office and down the hallway. "SHIELD doesn't just stop potential threats, we protect the public from ever finding out about them in the first place."

"Still, that could've been their life's work," she points out with a frown and Clint squeezes her shoulder.

"Try not to get hung up over it, Park. We're doing this for their good." He leads her to the parked car outside and she gets into the passenger seat so that he can drive them back to the SHIELD base.

"Any luck?" Phil asks when they enter the base and Parker shakes her head.

"No. My record's empty."

"I'm sorry." Phil looks sincerely sympathetic, but it doesn't really make her feel better. "Stark called while you were out, he said he and Miss Potts just reached Malibu and to call when you can."

"I'll check in with him," Parker promises.

"Looks like rain coming in tonight," Clint notes as he glances up, noticing the dark storm clouds rolling in over the desert. "Kid, I hope your waterbending's improved enough that you can make an umbrella for us up there."

* * *

As the first drops of rain begin to fall that night, cold despite the heat of the desert, Parker finds that she can indeed divert the water around them as long as she concentrates, leaving herself and Clint completely dry.

"I might just take you along for stakeout missions in the rain now on, this is neat," he says appreciatively, watching the raindrops veer around them as if there's an invisible force field around them.

"You'd have to ask my dad for permission," she points out dryly.

"We've got an intruder," Phil's voice crackles through the comms unit in her ear and she sits up abruptly. Clint follows suit, frowning as he presses his own earpiece to listen in. "Southwest perimeter, DeLancey and Jackson are on their way to intercept him. Barton, you got a visual?"

"Sure do," Clint says as he climbs to his feet and draws an explosive arrow from the quiver strapped to his back, nocking it onto his bow string and pulling it taut as he aims at the shadowy figure climbing under the wire fence surrounding the SHIELD base.

"And here I thought the bow and arrows were just for show," Parker deadpans as she gets up and peers over the metal rails of the cherry picker at the intruder.

"Hey, I'm not gonna fire unless he's on top of us." Clint wrinkles his nose thoughtfully. "Well. Underneath us, anyway."

"Hold off on any confrontation unless he gets near the 084," Phil confirms.

"Magic hammer," Parker whispers just loud enough for Clint to hear her and he smirks, keeping his arrow trained on the stranger making his way stealthily around the compound. A Jeep pulls up to his location and Parker and Clint watch him duck out of sight of the headlights and roll underneath the Jeep.

"That'd be DeLancey and Jackson," Clint says under his breath. "They're not gonna notice him." Sure enough, the two agents who climb out of the Jeep wave their flashlights around the area, but miss the stranger clinging to the underside of the Jeep.

"Should we warn them?" Parker asks and Clint shakes his head.

"Coulson's not calling it in yet." He keeps his eyes fixed on the stranger as he climbs out from underneath the Jeep and then efficiently dispatches the two agents before they can so much as shout an alarm, leaving them unconscious on the ground as he slides on one of their rain slickers and saunters casually towards the compound as if he owns the whole thing. Clint whistles quietly, impressed. "Guy's good." He lowers his bow and arrow and presses his earpiece. "Coulson, he took DeLancey and Jackson out like they were made of tissue paper. Do we engage?"

"Hold," Phil answers, still sounding calm. "He's not near the 084 yet. If he is, you stay in the air and Parker will engage."

"I will?" Parker echoes, surprised.

"You're our last line of defense," Phil explains. "Hopefully, the sight of you bending will be enough to scare him away when he realizes he's out of his league here."

"Let's hope," Parker agrees reluctantly. As the stranger makes his way into the compound, an alarm begins to ring as one of the patrolling SHIELD agents finds DeLancey and Jackson unconscious in the rain and calls it in on his walkie-talkie.

"Alright. Everyone in this base is on red alert and after this guy now," Clint says quietly, studying the silhouette of the man below through the thin white material of the tents enclosing the hallways of the compound. "Let's see what he does."

As they watch the man stroll through the compound, taking out guards left and right without so much as a pause in his stride, the rain picks up until it's a steady downpour, turning the crater below into a giant mud pit. Parker has to concentrate just a little more on her waterbending to keep them from getting soaked, waving her hand over her head to keep the rain at bay while chewing her lip anxiously. Thunder suddenly cracks overhead, lightning forking through the storm clouds, and she jumps, briefly losing her concentration as a deluge of rain drenches both her and Clint.

"Hey," he complains goodnaturedly, but to her relief, he doesn't sound actually upset about it.

"Sorry," she apologizes, but before she can dry them off again, the stranger makes his way to the center of the compound. As he rounds the corner and comes out into the rain, Parker finally gets a good look at him as he discards the stolen SHIELD rain slicker; he's tall and built like a tank, with shoulder-length blonde hair and a beard. Even with the plain T-shirt and jeans he's wearing, he looks like he's just stepped out of a Shakespearean play, walking with purpose and casual grace towards the center of the compound.

"Park, you're up," Phil says over the comms unit.

"You need backup, just say the word, kid," Clint adds as Parker reluctantly climbs up onto the railing, bracing herself before hopping down. She cushions her fall with a burst of air and, to her relief, lands neatly between the stranger and the hammer. Mud squelches under her shoes and she has to suppress her instinctive grimace at the sound as the stranger stops in his tracks, visibly startled by her sudden appearance.

"Sorry, buddy," she says apologetically, brushing a wet strand of hair out of her face. "I'm not allowed to let you near this thing, whatever it is."

"It belongs to me," the man answers. His voice is deep, rumbling like thunder over the sound of the rain pattering around them, and has a British accent. He raises his eyebrows as he looks her over, clearly amused. "Bit young for a guard, aren't you?"

Parker can hear the derision in his voice and it makes her bristle slightly, offended, even as heat flares in her palms and forms daggers of fire that she holds up in front of herself like weapons. She hopes that the display is enough to scare him, but to her surprise, he relaxes, his smile widening.

"Ah. I see now." He dips his head in a cordial bow. "I've been looking forward to meeting you for many years, Avatar."

"You know me?" Parker is bewildered enough that her flames sputter and extinguish themselves; even though the world knows who she is, most people still don't entirely know what to make of her and her bending.

"Of course. Midgard's protector, able to control the core elements of the realm." The man tilts his head, studying her curiously. "You're smaller than I imagined you'd be. Younger, too. Most Avatars aren't told what they are until they turn sixteen years of age."

"Midgard?" Parker echoes, frowning at the unfamiliar term, but the man doesn't offer an explanation as he begins to move forward, making to step around her.

"I'll be having my hammer back now, if you please." He reaches for the handle of the hammer, but Parker reacts quickly, bringing up the mud around her and throwing it forward to send him sprawling back against the ground.

"Like I said, I'm not allowed to let you near it," she points out. "Even if it _is_ yours."

"You're strong, little one," the man says cheerfully as he climbs to his feet, unfazed by the fact that he is now covered in mud from head to toe. "And I have no intention of harming you. But I've come too far for you to get in my way now." As he straightens to his full height, he stands more than a foot taller than Parker herself, his biceps almost as large as her head, and she suddenly feels a curl of fear as she realizes that he very easily _can_ harm her, even with her bending to protect herself.

"That sounds an awful lot like a threat to me," she hears Clint murmur over her comms unit. "I can take him out if he's going to hurt her, Coulson."

"Hold your fire," Phil insists, although he sounds a little more tense. "I've got eyes on them now. She can take him."

Parker's a little mollified by the faith in her abilities as she stands her ground in front of the hammer, shifting her feet so that the mud wraps around them to secure her in place. Her sneakers are probably ruined for good, but she figures it's better than having the man run her over like a steamroller.

Whatever the man sees in her face makes his amused smile disappear as his jaw sets. "I suppose I have no choice, then."

He storms forward, but Parker's ready for him, bringing up another wall of mud to shove him backwards again. He stumbles, but doesn't fall like before, holding his ground. She brings one foot up and slashes it in a downwards kick as a wave of fire follows in its wake, pushing the man another step backwards away from the heat. He ducks under the wave of fire, much faster than Parker had expected, considering his size, and rushes at her. Before she can bring up more mud to defend herself with, he shoves her aside, sending her sprawling as her shoulder hits the ground hard. She grimaces as mud soaks into her clothes, clambering to her feet in time to see him reaching for the hammer again.

"Wait," Phil says suddenly into her comms unit, making her freeze in place. "Let's see what he does."

The man grasps the handle of the hammer, turning to give Parker a triumphant smirk as he prepares to lift it. "I'm sorry, little one, but it seems that-" He breaks off abruptly as he drops his gaze back to the hammer, staring at it in shock. He attempts to pull on it, but it doesn't budge.

"Don't take it personally," she reassures him. "I couldn't move it more than an inch, either."

"I don't understand." The man sounds shaken as he tugs at the hammer again, his muscles straining under the effort, but it's rooted to the ground. "I...I don't understand." He looks up at the stormy sky above them, as if beseeching it for an answer, but clearly doesn't find whatever he's looking for.

"Show's over," Phil says over the comms unit. "Ground units, move in." Parker steps back to allow several SHIELD agents to move in and arrest the man, who numbly allows them to cuff his hands behind his back and drag him back into the compound. She stays where she is, moving to the hammer to try tugging on it again experimentally. It shifts marginally, but she's still not able to pick it up. "Park?" Phil asks, startling her into reality, and she looks up to find him holding an umbrella out. "Come on, you should get cleaned up."

Reminded suddenly that she's still covered in mud and rain, she nods and ducks under the umbrella to let him usher her inside. "He said the hammer was his," she points out.

"We'll find out if he's telling the truth," Phil reassures her, although he doesn't appear convinced. "He must be well-trained, he took out some of our best agents."

"He called me 'Midgard's protector,'" Parker adds as she wipes mud off her face with her sleeve. "What even _is_ Midgard?"

Phil pauses, his nose wrinkling in thought. "Well, in Norse mythology, Midgard was how they referred to Earth. Maybe he's just really into that kind of thing."

"Maybe." Parker chews her lip thoughtfully. "He seemed to know a lot about me. Or the Avatar, anyway. Not many people do."

"Don't engage with him," Phil warns her. "I'll deal with interrogating him. You focus on getting cleaned up and getting some rest." He gives her a small smile, which makes her relax a little. "You did great tonight."

She feels her mouth curve into a smile automatically at the praise. "Thanks." He ushers her towards the showers and she obediently heads off to clean up and change into fresh clothes, although her mind is still on the stranger and his mysterious hammer.

* * *

"Any luck getting information out of him?" Parker asks as she makes her way to the holding cell in which the stranger is being kept, separated by a glass wall from the rest of the room. She can see Phil talking to him inside, the glass wall keeping her from hearing the interrogation, but he keeps his mouth firmly shut, his eyes averted as he stares at some point over Phil's shoulder.

"Not so far," Agent Sitwell replies, casting a glance in Parker's direction. "I thought Coulson told you to go to bed."

"He did, but I wanted to know what was going on." She drops into a chair at the table in the corner, watching the interrogation. "Where's Clint?"

"Agent Barton just left his post to get some sleep before his next shift." Sitwell frowns back at her. "You really shouldn't be here."

She wonders why he's trying to get rid of her and purposely leans back in her chair, getting comfortable as she crosses her arms over her chest. "If anything goes wrong, I'll leave," she offers, but he doesn't look mollified, still frowning deeply.

The stranger turns his head, catching sight of Parker, and she waves back at him. He cracks a tiny smile at last, although it's far less confident than he had been earlier, and turns back to Phil to say something quietly. Phil's expression doesn't change, but Parker sees his shoulder tense as he shakes his head. The stranger says something else and Phil exhales sharply, turning to Parker and waving her in. She feels a small, vindictive stab of triumph as she walks past Sitwell, who's still scowling at her, and opens the glass door to let herself into the holding cell.

"He says he'll only talk to you," Phil tells her once she's inside, passing her to head out. "If there's trouble, get out fast."

"I know," she reassures him. "I'll be okay, Phil." He squeezes her shoulder before leaving her alone with the stranger. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees him take her abandoned seat at the table outside, watching them intently.

"Is he your guardian?" the man asks. His voice is hoarse now, as if he hasn't spoken since their last conversation a couple hours earlier.

"No, but he's looked out for me my whole life," she admits, taking a seat in the chair opposite his. "So what's your name, anyway?"

"I am Thor." He doesn't offer a last name.

"Like the god of thunder?" She wonders if he really is into Norse mythology so much that he's legally changed his name.

Thor smiles faintly. "Yes, something like that. Now, do you have a name or should I keep calling you 'little one?'"

"Please don't," she says, feeling more and more like she's being mocked each time he calls her "little one." "It's Parker."

"Hello, Avatar Parker." He pauses. "There's not much I can tell you that the men outside will want to know."

"Whatever you can tell me would be pretty nice," she offers.

Thor's smile fades as he drops his gaze to his knees. "I was not worthy to lift Mjolnir."

"...you lost me already," Parker confesses. "Myeh-meer?" she tries to repeat the foreign word.

He shakes his head. "Mjolnir," he corrects her. "My hammer. That is its name."

"And, what, only somebody who's worthy can lift it?" she asks and he nods.

"It's difficult to explain when you understand little of the universe."

"I like learning," she offers, but he only shakes his head again, a wry smile tugging at his lips.

"It would take much more time than we have to teach you all that you need to know." He pauses, considering her. "You didn't enter the Avatar State when we fought. I'm a little disappointed, I would have liked to see it."

"The what?" she asks, bewildered.

"The-" He breaks off, seeing her expression. "You don't know about it," he says, stunned.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she admits.

"You really don't know much, do you?" he says with a sympathetic smile and she feels a little like she's being mocked again, although his tone is kind.

"I know plenty," she answers, insulted. "I know how to bend all four elements, and I can control it a lot better than I could even two years ago."

"But to not even know about your full potential-" Thor breaks off when the door opens again and Parker's a little disappointed to see Phil standing there. She had been close to getting some real information about herself.

"Sorry to interrupt," he says apologetically to her before turning to Thor. "You've got someone vouching for you outside. You're free to go."

"What?" Thor says, confused, as Phil enters the cell to undo his restraints, allowing him to get to his feet.

"Donny, there you are!" An older man enters the cell, grasping Thor in a tight hug.

"I thought you said your name was Thor," Parker points out as she climbs to her feet.

"Oh, that's just a nickname he goes by," the other man tells her, clapping Thor's broad shoulder. "Come on, it's going to be alright, my friend. Let's get you home." He leads Thor outside, but Thor keeps shooting looks back at Parker over his shoulder, seemingly just as confused as she is.

"His name's Dr. Donald Blake, supposedly," Phil says, placing a hand on Parker's shoulder to guide her outside as well as they watch the two men leave. "He works with Dr. Selvig and some other astrophysicists in town. He was upset when we acquired their research, got drunk, and decided to break in here to steal it back."

"But he was after the hammer, not the research," she says, frowning.

"Let's let them keep thinking we believe them for now," Phil reassures her, patting her shoulder. "Did you find anything out from him?"

"Not much," she admits. "He said he wasn't worthy to lift the hammer. He kept calling it some weird name that I can't pronounce. And-" She breaks off, not sure whether to mention the Avatar State to Phil.

"And?" he prompts, noticing her hesitation.

"Nothing," she answers, shaking her head. "That's all he said. He was probably just drunk. Or crazy. Sure talked like he was."

"Well, we'll be keeping an eye on them regardless. They're staying in town for some time, so we can keep watch in case he acts out again," Phil says, frowning even as he ushers her down the hall. "Go get some rest, Park. It's been a long night. And check in with Stark in the morning."

"I will," she agrees, heading in the direction of the bunks, but her mind is still on her conversation with Thor. From the window of the bunks, she watches Selvig and Thor climb into an SUV waiting outside and drive in the direction of the town, Phil staring after them from the entrance of the compound pensively, before making her decision and climbing out of the window the moment Phil turns his back.

She starts walking along the desert road, but by the time she's over the hill and the compound disappears behind her, she realizes that Puente Antiguo is still several miles away and she doesn't have any way of getting there before dawn, much less back to the compound before Phil notices she's gone.

"Need a ride?" Clint pulls up on the road beside her in a sleek black car, grinning wryly at the startled look on her face.

"I thought you were off the clock," she says, too relieved to be embarrassed by getting caught as she climbs into the passenger seat.

"Nah, just told Sitwell I was so he'd leave me alone. I can't stand that guy." Clint starts driving down the road once she puts her seatbelt on, drumming his fingers on the wheel. "So let me guess, you wanna go after the guy and ask him more questions."

"Was it that obvious?" she asks sheepishly and he smirks.

"You really thought you could sneak past Coulson without him noticing?"

"Never let it be said that I actually think my plans through," Parker says dryly, earning a laugh from Clint in response as they head towards the town.

* * *

 **Also never let it be said that writer's block isn't a thing, because it most definitely is, and work has been keeping me very busy for the past couple months, lol. But it was a lot of fun having Parker and Thor finally meet, and I liked the idea of Thor (and the universe, really) knowing about the Avatar and their role in protecting Earth/Midgard.**

 **Hope you enjoy this chapter!**


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